USA Hockey Opens 31-Player Camp With Canada Date Looming
All 23 Olympic gold medalists were invited to Blaine as the U.S. begins sorting its roster for November's World Championship in Denmark.
USA Hockey has named 31 players to a national team camp that runs September 13-19 at the NSC Super Rink in Blaine, Minnesota, the first of two sessions before the 2026 IIHF Women's World Championship in Denmark.
All 23 players from the U.S. roster that won Olympic gold earlier this year were invited back. The new names are mostly PWHL-adjacent: veterans Casey O'Brien and Jesse Compher, plus incoming pros Lacey Eden, Sloane Matthews, Grace Dwyer, Emma Peschel and Sydney Morrow.
The college ranks are barely represented. Defender Laney Potter is the lone current NCAA player added to the group, joining returnees Joy Dunne of Ohio State and Ava McNaughton of Wisconsin.
Goaltending looks settled. Aerin Frankel, Gwyneth Philips and McNaughton are the only goaltenders invited to this camp.
The second session is the interesting one. The U.S. will gather October 23-30 at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan, and host Canada there on October 30. That follows a pre-Worlds meeting between the two on October 28 at the WFCU Centre in Windsor, Ontario, giving the rivals back-to-back exhibitions on either side of the border inside three days.
The World Championship runs November 6-16, split between Herning Hockey Arena and Esbjerg Hockey Arena in Denmark.
For the PWHL, the timing matters. Camp invitations double as a look at which pros are pushing for national team minutes heading into the season.
