Team USA makes a huge addition to the blueline

The team’s shaky start at the World Championships forces them to call in the big guns.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Team USA makes a huge addition to the blueline
Zuma Press

Team USA has looked shaky through its first three games at the IIHF World Championships in Slovakia this week with a 2-1-0 record. The team dropped its tournament opener 4-1 to host Slovakia and barely scraped past Finland with a 3-2 overtime win yesterday. They’re lone regulation win came against France, a team that frankly has no business competing against USA in a world class tournament. Suffice it to say, USA is going to have to improve by leaps and bounds if they’re going to contend for gold in Slovakia.

To that end, the team made a valuable addition today by officially Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski.

Check it out:



Werenski and the Blue Jackets were obviously eliminated from Stanley Cup contention last week, but evidently it took a couple missteps from USA to necessitate Werenski’s addition.

Read below for the full press release of this transaction, courtesy of the USA Hockey website:

KOSICE, Slovakia - Defenseman Zach Werenski (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich./Columbus Blue Jackets/University of Michigan) from the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets has been added to the roster of the 2019 U.S. Men’s National Team it was announced today by USA Hockey.
Werenski recently finished his third full season in the NHL. He played in all 82 regular-season games this year for Columbus and had a career-high 44 points (11G, 33A). He also recorded six points (1G, 5A) in 10 playoff games.
Werenski has played on the international stage for the U.S. in two previous IIHF events, including the 2015 (fifth place) and 2016 (bronze medal) World Junior Championship.
A product of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, Werenski played two seasons of college hockey at the University of Michigan following his time at the NTDP.
With the addition of Werenski, the U.S. roster now includes 24 players, including three goaltenders, eight defensemen and 13 forwards.
Source: USA Hockey