Michigan State goaltender Trey Augustine was named to the USA Hockey Men’s World Championships roster on Sunday.
Big news was announced in the hockey world on Sunday morning. USA Hockey released its full roster for the upcoming World Championships starting May 10 in Czechia. A familiar face for Spartan (and Red Wings) fans made the cut: Trey Augustine.
International hockey is coming back to the forefront now that NHL players are allowed to compete in the Olympics again. When that changed, many people expected to see NHL players loaded on rosters for this year’s World Championships and next year’s Four Nations Cup. These two tournaments are widely considered to be the biggest two remaining international competitions before the 2026 Olympics in Italy.
The loading of NHL talent onto these rosters did happen but that’s not entirely the case this year. A couple of notable prospects from around the NHL and USNTDP were named to the roster. The youth movement throughout Team USA has been noticeable for the past few years and because of this, several high-profile prospects made the cut.
The most notable was Augustine. It’s hard to envision a better come-up than the one he is currently enjoying. After playing a role in the 2023 World Junior Championships and winning a bronze medal for Team USA, Augustine was drafted 41st overall by his hometown Detroit Red Wings in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. In September, he arrived on campus in East Lansing, eager to help join the Spartan renaissance happening under Adam Nightingale.
Augustine’s freshman season in the green and white was a memorable one. He led the Spartans to a 25-10-3 record overall. He was near the top of the nation in almost every goaltending statistic. That was good enough to earn him a spot on the Big Ten All-Freshman team, Big Ten Tournament Most Outstanding Player award, and second-team All-Big Ten honors. The Spartans won both the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles. That was just the second time ever a team was able to win both titles in one season.
During the college hockey holiday break this past December, Augustine was again named to Team USA to compete at the 2024 World Junior Championships in Sweden. That’s where Augustine won the starting goaltender job. He then led Team USA with a perfect 4-0 record en route to a gold medal for Americans. All while reportedly battling a bad case of the flu.
After the deep postseason run that had the Spartans falling a game short of the Frozen Four, Augustine announced his intentions to come back and play in East Lansing next year for his sophomore season.
Team USA has a couple of other Spartan connections to the World Championships roster this year as well. Former defenseman and captain Jeff Petry made the roster. The current Red Wing will be joining several of his Detroit teammates and staff on the roster. And MSU performance coach Will Morlock is joining the Team USA staff.
Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde and goaltending coach Alex Westlund will join the coaching staff as well. Both have previous experience working with Augustine during last year’s Red Wings Developmental Camp. Augustine will also be expected to compete at that same camp when it starts this August, before coming back to EL for the 2024-25 season.
The other non-NHL prospects joining Augustine on Team USA are his USNTDP teammates Ryan Leonard (Washington Capitals) and Will Smith (San Jose Sharks). These three prospects played major roles for the Americans in winning gold at the World Juniors and will look to do it again in this tournament.
Notable NHL players joining the young kids on Team USA are Cole Caufield, Johnny Gaudreau, Brady Tkachuk, Trevor Zegras, Luke Hughes, and Zach Werenski. Red Wings Goaltender Alex Lyon will serve as the other half of the goalie tandem with Trey Augustine.
Check out the full roster below.
The tournament will take place May 10-26 in the cities of Ostrava and Prague. All games will be televised state-side via the NHL Network.
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