Seth Jones, Alex Vlasic Will Represent the US for the Worlds

It is that time of year. The teams that didn’t make the playoffs are sending their guys to the IIHF World Championships. The Chicago Blackhawks were not a playoff team so naturally, it will be an organization with a few guys playing. Seth Jones and Alex Vlasic will be a part of Team USA this year. Both are Chicago defensemen who will be with the team for a while but are at completely different points in their career.

We learned already that Connor Bedard (Canada) and Philipp Kurashev (Switzerland) will be going but we have knowledge of two more guys going now.

Jones is 29 years old and in the middle of his prime. The Hawks are the third team that he has played for despite being very good everywhere he goes.

Vlasic is 22 years old and has a lot of development left in his game. He is a solid young defender who has room to grow on both sides of the puck. The IIHF Worlds isn’t a best-on-best event but there are a lot of very good players. These two Blackhawks will have a bunch of studs on their team like Luke Hughes, Matt Boldy, Brady Tkachuk, and Trevor Zegras amongst others.

Now, he and Jones will both head to play in this big tournament. For Vlasic, it’s returning to a competition on the world stage that he loved.

“Yeah, I haven’t really played on Olympic sheet since I played at the program when we went to the U-18 Worlds and played all those tournaments, and I remember loving it,” Vlasic said.  “I remember at the time liking the Olympic sheet better than the NHL because for me, I’m a bigger guy and can kind of have a little bit more room to get my feet going and use my size to my advantage and get those big legs chugging.”

Seth Jones, Alex Vlasic Two of Several Blackhawks To Be In The Tournament

For Jones, this is a chance to play more in a season in which he battled injury a little bit. It should be a great way to propel him into the summer so he can be happy with his game heading into next year.

As for Vlasic, this is a great opportunity for him to feel good about his game. Team USA will be amongst the best and have a chance to win so he will be given a good chance. He will get his touches and everyone around him is a great player.

Developing the young guys is the most important thing for Kyle Davidson as this team’s GM and sending Vlasic to Worlds will help him with that. These two would love to come home with a Gold Medal. Of course, they’ll see Bedard, Kurashev, and Petr Mrazek competing as well.

But instead of being teammates, they’ll now be competitors.

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