Head coach Glen Williamson and his staff have trimmed the World Championship roster down to the final 28 players, another round of cuts will be made before the tournament starts on April 12th.
The six returning players from last season look to be making the final team, with defencemen Bence Stipsicz and Zsombor Garát and forward Zsombor Kiss look to be making their third U18 world championships. One interesting note is that Bendúz Plesz who was the emergency backup goalie behind Gergely Arany and Dániel Kornakker last year has decided to retire and concentrate on his studies.
The boys will still play Denmark and Ukraine in exhibition games before the World Championships.
Glen Williamson-”We had 48 players originally because it was a wide open race to make the final roster with a number of U16 players to make it. A lot of guys came in top form because of the playoffs and we had a lot of tough decisions to make.”
Roster
Goalies (4) Gergely BORS (Fehérvár Av19), Kristóf DOBOS, Boldizsár GYŐRI (MAC), Bence KISS (Miskolc)
Defencemen (9) Florián SÁNDOR, Dávid SZABÓ (Fehérvár AV19) Bence STIPSICZ, Gergely TÓTH (MAC Budapest) Rajmund BUKOR, Dániel SZLAMA (Vasas) Zsombor GARÁTH (Boston Bandits, EHL) Dominik Gerencsér (Jukurit, FIN) Ferenc SIMOTICS (Sparta Praha, CZE)
Forwards (15) Gábor BUGÁR, Antonio SARCIA (MAC Budapest) Máté GÁSPÁR, Martin SÁGI (Linz, AUT) András HORVÁTH, Viktor TÖRÖK (Vasas) Bálint Horváth (Troja/Ljungby, SWE) Patrik KISS, Ákos NAGY, Andor PÉTER, Donát SZITA, Dániel VIZI (Fehérvár AV19) Zsombor KISS (Bern, SUI), Zoltán NAGY (Diskos, FIN) Kevin SZABAD (Vienna Capitals, AUT)
Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Glen Williamson
Assistant coaches: Szabolcs Fodor, Péter Mayer, Rastislav Ondrejcik, Bence Svasznek