Gophers sophomore center Jordan Schroeder — and three of his teammates — will be among the 43 players at the U.S. national junior evaluation camp starting Friday in Lake Placid, N.Y. It runs until Aug. 15.

From that camp, the players will be picked for the U.S. team competing in the 2010 World Junior Championships from Dec. 26 to Jan. 15 in Saskatoon and Regina, Sask.

Schroeder has played on the last two U.S. teams in the World Juniors. He should be a near lock to make a third, barring injury.

Also trying for spots on the team are sophomore defenseman Aaron Ness and two incoming freshmen, defenseman Nick Leddy and forward Zach Budish.

Others with Minnesota ties who will be at the evaluation camp are:

* Goalie Mike Lee of Roseau. He played for the Fargo Force of the USHL last season and will be a freshman at North Dakota this coming season.

* Defenseman Jake Gardiner of Minnesota. He will be a sophomore at Wisconsin this season.

* Forward Danny Kristo of Eden Prairie. He played for Omaha of the USHl this past season. He will be a freshman at North Dakota.

* Forward Derek Stepan of Hastings. He will be a sophomore at Wisconsin.

My guess is the Gophers will probably lose three players will miss the U’s holiday tournament to play on the U.S. team, Schroeder, Ness and one of the two freshmen.

At Lake Placid, the U.S. players will have three split-squad games and four games against a team from Russia. USAHockey.com will have complete camp coverage, according to a release from USA Hockey.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.