US Olympic Hockey Team 2018: Men's and Women's Starting Rosters, Top Players
It's time to get to know the United States' men's and women's teams a little better as they get set to take the ice in the coming weeks. Below, we'll take a look at each roster and preview the teams ahead of Pyeongchang 2018.
Rosters
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Goalies David Leggio and Brandon Maxwell were added to the men's roster in January.
Preview and Top Players
There will be very different expectations for the men's and women's teams in Pyeongchang, South Korea. While the men are a collection of college players and former NHLers, the women remain one of the top squads in the world.
The U.S. women last won gold in 1998. Since then, they've taken home silver in 2002, 2010 and 2014, losing to Team Canada in the gold-medal game all three times, and bronze in 2006.
"We've looked at ourselves in the mirror and said, 'What do we need to do to get better?'" United States captain Meghan Duggan told Kevin Allen of USA Today. "And we have done those things."
It will help that the United States has 10 players on the roster with Olympic experience. And those veterans have tried to grow from their disappointments in the past, namely against Canada.
"I look at it as sometimes you need to fail to succeed," alternate captain Kacey Bellamy told Allen. "We've grown so much as a team and people have grown so much individually. I don't take any of those losses back because of what we learned."
The women's team hasn't been without its controversy, however, namely the exclusion of star player Alex Carpenter. She led the team in goals in Sochi as a 19-year-old and scored 279 points in 150 games over the course of four years at Boston College.
Defender Megan Bozek also was cut from the team after participating in Sochi. But the members of the team maintain that they are "a tight-knit group who work hard and know how to have a good time," as Char Adams of People wrote.
"A lot of us are pretty lighthearted and like to have a lot of fun, joke around," Brianna Decker told Adams. "But we all have that switch that turns on when it’s game time."
And the women's team is still loaded with stars. Hilary Knight is the team's top player and an offensive dynamo who has scored 101 goals and 78 assists in 152 games for the national team.
"Her size, her strength and her speed, some of the things she's able to do with the puck, whether it’s stickhandling and beating somebody one-on-one, taking a quick snapshot and beating the goalie in a tough situation," Mark Jones, a player on the 1980 men's national team, said of Knight's strengths, per Roxanna Scott of USA Today.
Duggan is the team's captain and leader. Cayla Barnes, 19, is the up-and-coming star who could provide a major boost for the team as a two-way defender. Amanda Kessel is one of the most well-known and talented forwards in the world. Without question, the U.S. has the firepower to win gold.
The men, on the other hand, will come into the Olympics with far less time together as a group. With no NHL players involved, the team has a different look.
Former NHLers Brian Gionta, Mark Arcobello, Jim Slater, James Wisniewski and Matt Gilroy, among others, are the headliners, while fans will get a chance to see some up-and-coming college talents in Troy Terry, Jordan Greenway, Ryan Donato and Will Borgen.
How they mesh will play a major role for a team unexpected to make much of a splash in Pyeongchang.
Gionta, the team captain, has the most name recognition, scoring 289 goals and 299 assists in 1,006 NHL games. He last played in the league for the Buffalo Sabres in the 2016-17 season, and he'll lead an offense and team littered with players now plying their trade all across Europe.
The team will likely go as far as goalie Ryan Zapolski can take them. He's spent the past five years playing professionally in Finland before joining Jokerit of the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League this year, posting a stingy 1.68 GAA, according to and
The United States men's team won't be one of the favorites in Pyeongchang, with Canada, Sweden and Russia boasting strong rosters. But it wasn't the favorite in 1980, either, and that team will live on forever. The conditions may be a little bit different this time around, of course—the 1980 Soviet team featured that country's top players and was the prohibitive favorite—but a United States men's gold medal this year would nevertheless be an upset.
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