Of the 38 players chosen to attend the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup Camp in Plymouth, Mich., seven are from New England with many more having ties to the region. In past summers, they picked who would play for Team USA at the Select 17 camp, which just wrapped up on Wednesday with the New England...
Of the 38 players chosen to attend the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup Camp in Plymouth, Mich., seven are from New England with many more having ties to the region.
In past summers, they picked who would play for Team USA at the Select 17 camp, which just wrapped up on Wednesday with the New England District taking home the crown.
Selections for the Hlinka Gretzky Cup team will be a bit different this year.
Instead, USA Hockey has decided to have the camp July 20-24 to decide the final roster to send to the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which takes place Aug. 1-6 in Breclav, Czechia and Trencin, Slovakia.
New England will have three forwards battling for spots on the Hlinka Gretzky Cup team: J.J. Monteiro (Hudson, Mass.), Kolin Sisson (Lincoln, R.I.) and Niko Tournas (Redding, Conn.).
On defense, the region will send Will Felicio (Holden, Mass.), Elliott Groenewold (Bellows Falls, Vt.) and Owen Keefe (Saugus, Mass.). The lone netminder is Thatcher Bernstein (Brookline, Mass.).
Nine other players who made it have connections to the region.
New England prep hockey will have Kent's Alex Bales, a Providence College commit, and Brunswick's Drew DellaSalla, a Harvard commit, in Plymouth, Mich.
Callum Hughes made the team and played for the Massachusetts District. He played at Mount Saint Charles for the past two seasons and is committed to Boston University. Along with Hughes, four other Mount Saint Charles alums will be in attendance — Chase Stefanek, as well as Monteiro, Sisson and Felicio. Stefanek has another tie to the region, as he's committed to Harvard. Grant Young, another Harvard commit, will be joining Stefanek in Plymouth, Mich.
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South Kent alum Tory Pitner, a UMass commit, made the camp. Two Boston University commits in John McNelis and Will Zellers also made it.
To no one's surprise, Trevor Connelly made the camp and should make the Hlinka Gretzky Cup team. He's a Providence College commit and was the best player at Select 17 camp. If he continues to trend upward, a first-round selection in the 2024 NHL Draft would come as a shock to no one.
