On this week’s episode of The Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series, Corey Pronman, Scott Wheeler, Max Bultman and Chris Peters hosted a mock meeting to build Team Canada and Team USA rosters for the 2026 World Juniors.

While the Canadian roster is likely going to be determined by the availability of players currently in the NHL, the American roster this year will be made up of a tighter pool of players with very specific strengths and some glaring questions at key positions.

The projected depth chart

Based on our discussion, here’s how we see Team USA lining up in Minnesota:

The center dilemma

The most contentious part of our discussion revolved around the center position. James Hagens is the projected No. 1 center. He was the best player for this age group at the U18s, the best center on the World Junior team last season, and despite a somewhat quiet start at Boston College, he’s the engine that drives the team’s offense. However, there have been times this season where Hagens hasn’t even lined up at center for BC.

The question marks appear immediately behind him. This age group of Americans simply doesn’t have the center depth we have seen in years past.

We ultimately settled on Will Horcoff as the second-line center, a decision driven largely by a desire to get the best top-nine forwards on the ice. Pronman was the dissenting voice here; he views Horcoff as a much more effective winger, given his skating and that he hasn’t played center regularly in nearly a year, including at the U18s or at Michigan. However, his colleagues made a fair point: if you move Horcoff to the wing, you push out a talented scorer like Ryker Lee or Trevor Connelly (Pronman left Lee out of his top nine), and you are left forcing a less-skilled two-way player like Kamil Bednarik or Cole McKinney into a top-six role where they may not be suited.

Ultimately, Horcoff provides the size and skill to anchor a scoring line; he has played some center before, even if it isn’t his natural fit currently. It allows us to slot Cole McKinney at 3C and Kamil Bednarik at 4C, creating a more balanced lineup.

Secondary scoring depth

This team has good skill on the wings, but the lack of center depth leads to a question of where the scoring will come from if the top line or top power-play unit isn’t rolling. Hopefully, that leads to Horcoff having success as the second-line center and creating two strong lines for Team USA.

One omission worth noting is J.P. Hurlbert. He’s leading the WHL in scoring and is a potential lottery pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. But Team USA has plenty of skill on the wings with older players, and as Chris Peters noted, there are some bad optics of putting a former U.S. NTDP player on the World Junior team the year he left the program.

The blue line: The Cole Hutson Show

The defense corps is headlined by Cole Hutson, who has the potential to be the best defenseman in the tournament. Much like his brother Lane, Cole is a highly skilled breakout machine and a power-play quarterback who can dictate the flow of the game. There was a legitimate discussion about him potentially double-shifting and running both power-play units because the drop-off in pure offensive creation after him is steep.

The rest of the group is solid, if unspectacular. There wasn’t much disagreement on the rest of the defense comprising Adam Kleber, Luke Osburn, Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen, EJ Emery and Logan Hensler.

We discussed Chase Reid, another potential lottery pick in the upcoming NHL Draft who has played massive minutes in the OHL, as a potential solution to add skill to a blue line that’s big and mobile but lacks natural puck movers. Given that he was cut from the U18 team, it seems unlikely that USA Hockey will reverse course this quickly and put him on the U20 team nine months later.

The Achilles’ heel: Goaltending

This is the weakest goaltending crop Team USA has brought to the World Juniors in recent memory. After a strong run in net, where they’ve had high-quality goalies in names like Trey Augustine, Jacob Fowler, and Spencer Knight, they will be searching for saves this year.

Nick Kempf is the likely starter based on his OK play at the college level. Behind him, we have Caleb Heil and Harrison Boettiger, who have been fine junior goalies but are not dominating currently. Heil is, in fact, going to a separate junior tournament for Team USA a few weeks before the World Juniors begin.

As Chris Peters noted during the discussion, there’s a distinct possibility that this tournament ends quickly for the U.S. if one of these netminders doesn’t catch lightning in a bottle.

Summary

This version of Team USA lacks the overwhelming center depth and goaltending security. However, they possess offensive game-breakers in Hagens and Hutson, and a winger group loaded with offensive talent like Teddy Stiga, Brodie Ziemer and Cole Eiserman.

This team has a good chance to medal or even win gold. However, the path to winning will be much tougher for the back-to-back gold medalists and tournament hosts than it was in recent years, when it had much more well-rounded age groups to fill the roster.