American goaltender forced to represent Sweden after goaltending emergency

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Tyler Ball
July 28, 2024 (7:09 PM)

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Today a strange occurrence has happened during a major international summer hockey event where an American goalie has had to represent Sweden.

This afternoon the World Junior Summer Showcase kicked off in the United States. This tournament is the kickoff for hockey events in the 2024-25 season. Players from the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland will play in several games. This tournament serves as a selection camp for the World Junior Championships in late 2024.

Today the tournament got underway with a pair of games for the two team USA's at the event. In game number 2 Team USA Blue was set to play against Sweden. When the two teams came out for warmups a strange observation was made. American goaltender Joey Slavick was seen representing Sweden.

A rare sight: American USNTDP goaltender Joey Slavick is backing up Sweden today. #WJSS

As of now, it is unclear why Joey Slavick was put on Team Sweden for this game. Either way, he made it onto the official roster and began the game as the backup for Olof Glifford.

Despite being the backup it looks as though Joey Slavick could end up seeing action after a rough start for the Swedish team.

Team USA dominating Sweden at the World Junior Summer Showcase

So far Team Sweden has struggled out of the gate and trails 3-0 to Team USA. Goals from Detroit Red Wings 2nd round pick Max Plante, San Jose Sharks 3rd rounder Brandon Svoboda, and Buffalo Sabres 3rd rounder Brodie Ziemer have given Team USA control of the game.

Lopsided one here as Brodie Ziemer makes it 3-0 in the first. #WJSS

With the game out of hand already it will be interesting to see if Joey Slavick will be able to get into the game and represent a different nation during this interesting event.