I have been off the grid for a little while but getting back into the hockey news and I just realized that the WJC Summer Showcase started this past weekend! While the Hawks do have three prospects at this showcase (which features only the US, Canada, Sweden, and Finland), only Moore is likely to play a prominent role on his WJC team but I’ll make note of the others.

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General Info

Here is a complete primer from FloHockey, which includes rosters, scehdules, streaming info, etc.

Here is a brief look at DailyFaceoff’s top 15 players at the Showcase, which includes these notes on Moore:

Moore played a couple of different roles with USA last year and I thought he looked good when he was promoted to the top line. He was the fastest player in the 2023 NHL Draft class, and someone many who followed the USA Hockey National Team Development Program in 2022-23 thought was underrated, in a sense. Moore is more than just a quick skater, though: he’s one of the hardest-working forwards you’ll find, and he’s extremely versatile. He has a good shot, but he filled more of a playmaker role as a freshman with the Golden Gophers this past season. Moore’s game is all about being toolsy, and if he doesn’t make it as a top-six forward, he has a realistic chance of being one of the best bottom-six threats in the NHL.

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Games To Date

As of today (7/30), each team has played two games with Team USA playing a split squad (Team White and Team Blue). The split squad will be filtered down before Team USA’s next game tomorrow (7/31).

Team Canada has a split squad game against themselves today and then start getting into the rotation against other nations.

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Roster Construction

• Moore (C/LW; 1st round, #19 pick on the 2023 draft) has been holding down the 2C spot on Team Blue behind Hagens (top eligible pick for the 2025 draft) and is on the second PP unit. I do hope we see him mix into PP1 at some point, either here or the actual WJC, but Team USA has many high class offensive players so we’ll see.

• Spellacy (RW; 3rd round, #72 pick in the 2024 draft) started out as the 4RW but moved up to 3LW in Game 2. Unfortunately, though, he may have doomed his (already slim) chances of making the team already, which I’ll touch on below.

• Peltonen (RHD; 7th round, #195 pick in the 2023 draft) is holding down a spot on the 3rd pairing for Team Finland. Doesn’t seem to be much more than a depth player but nice he is consistently playing and it sounds like he is doing well so far.

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Day 1 Notes

Final result was that Team Blue destroyed Sweden 7-2.

DaileyFaceoff’s complete notes here, which include these shoutouts:

Peltonen

Peltonen isn’t going to wow you with skill or much offensive production, but he seems to always be in the right spot at the right time. The 2023 seventh-rounder is a big, mobile blueliner who gets into scoring lanes just to help take away time and space.

Moore

If I wanted a young hockey player to learn about skating and work ethic, I’d show them Oliver Moore clips. No matter the game, no matter the score, no matter the situation, he gives it his all out there. I still can’t believe the Hawks got him when they did because a player as versatile and difficult to play against as he deserved to go so much higher. His goal that made it 7-0 was pretty, and he scored that because of his speed.

Moore scored the 7th goal for Team Blue but had no assists. His speed and tenacityseemed to be standing out, per usual, but clips of the goal are unfortunately impossible to find lol if anyone can hell me search that would be awesome!

Additional notes on the games from FloHockey

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Day 2 Notes

FloHockey’s complete notes, which include the following comments:

Moore

There is so much to like about Oliver Moore’s game. There’s still more for him to put together offensively as he needs to refine his finishing, but he impacts the game in so many ways. His speed is a weapon in more ways than one and his ability to get behind defenders makes him a continual transition threat. He also showed why his speed is an asset on the back check.

Rosters

Head coach David Carle revealed that the staff is now entering phase two of the camp which means that they are going to let the returning players rest and not play them anymore. They want to get a look at the other players who have a bit more to prove.

I am not quite sure if this means Moore (who won gold at last year’s WJC) will not play at all again but it certainly seemed possible his Showcase is done since he’s locked into the roster. He only had the one goal between each game, but his skating, defense, and transition all sound to be up to his high standard despite it being the middle of the summer. Really hope we start seeing some higher end offense emerging in his game next season.

Additional notes from DailyFaceoff

Note on Spellacy

Despite getting bump up to the 3rd line and picking up a pair of assists (first goal here and second here), Spellacy got called for 5+game on a headshot seen here when Team USA was up 5-3 halfway through the 3rd period. It’s pretty soft but IIHF rules don’t tolerate any head contact.

I’m not exactly sure what this does to Spellacy’s chances of making the team, as I figure Team USA would love his speed on the roster in case of injury, but he has a lot of competition. I suppose we will know later today when they trim the roster if he is still fighting for a spot.

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More to come on this Showcase but nice to see Moore cementing himself into the roster, even if didn’t quite dominate like Nazar did last summer.