COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The 2016 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp will begin Saturday (July 30) at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan. A total of 42 U.S. players will take part in daily practices in addition to international games against Canada, Finland and Sweden.
The camp is an audition for players seeking to make their federation team that will compete at the 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26, 2016 – Jan. 5, 2017, in Montreal and Toronto, Canada.
All total, 10 games over five days will be contested and tickets can be purchased online here or by calling the USA Hockey Arena Box Office at 734-453-8400. Tickets will be sold on a per-day basis, with each ticket good for the two games played that day. Tickets will be general admission with the exception of Saturday, August 6, which will utilize reserved seating. Tickets are priced at $5 for Sunday, July 31, and Monday, August 1; $10 on Wednesday, August 3, and Friday, August 5; and $15 on Saturday, August 6, a day that includes the highly anticipated USA-Canada matchup.
Ninety-nine of the 132 players set to take part in the week-long camp have been drafted or signed by an NHL club, including 34 who were first round selections. Of those 99 players, 36 are American with 12 having been chosen in the first round, including 2016 picks Kieffer Bellows (N.Y. Islanders), Logan Brown (Ottawa), Clayton Keller (Arizona), Trent Frederic (Boston), Luke Kunin (Minnesota), Max Jones (Anaheim), Charlie McAvoy (Boston), Tage Thompson (St. Louis), Matthew Tkachuk (Calgary), Riley Tufte (Dallas) and 2015 selections Brock Boeser (Vancouver) and Jack Roslovic (Winnipeg).
The camp provides local fans the opportunity to reconnect with several members of last season’s U.S. National Under-18 Team, a part of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. Members from last year’s team who will be attending the camp include forwards Joey Anderson, Kieffer Bellows, Trent Frederic and Clayton Keller; defensemen Adam Fox, J.D. Greenway, Chad Krys, Ryan Lindgren, and Luke Martin; and goaltenders Jake Oettinger and Joseph Woll.
FASTHockey to Stream All Camp Games
USA Hockey, in partnership with FASTHockey, is once again providing live streaming coverage of the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp. Current subscribers of FASTHockey can watch the games with their active subscription. Users whose subscriptions have expired can simply log in to their existing FASTHockey account and activate a new subscription. New users to FASThockey should go to USAHockey.FASTHockey.com and register for an account. Once confirmed, the user can select from several subscription packages to watch live or on-demand from virtually any device.
NOTES: Bob Motzko (St. Cloud, Minn.) is the head coach of the 2017 U.S. National Junior Team … The assistant coaches for Team USA are Greg Brown (Scituate, Mass.), Grant Potulny (Minneapolis, Minn.), Kris Mayotte (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Steve Miller (Colorado Springs, Colo.) … Mike Knuble (East Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Ron Rolston (Fenton, Mich.) will serve as guest camp coaches … USA Hockey’s international council, chaired by Gavin Regan (Potsdam, N.Y.), vice president of USA Hockey, has oversight responsibilities for all U.S. national teams.
