While all Boston Bruins’ eyes are going to be trained on James Hagens during the IIHF World Junior Championships when Team USA takes the ice, it’s another B’s prospect that is turning heads at the start of the international tournament.
It’s 19-year-old Will Zellers, who was the last player added to the Team USA roster, who’s starred with three goals in the first two games for the Red, White and Blue while outshining some of his more hyped teammates. The former third-round pick has shown off a tremendous shot and release during the first couple of games, and it’s easy to see why Zellers has been scoring so many goals at the USHL, college and international levels over the last couple of seasons.
Dude this kid Will Zellers is filthy pic.twitter.com/7nGEj1SEzO
— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) December 28, 2025
Zellers was a late addition to the Team USA selection camp prior to the tournament and wound up on the final roster after an injury to one of the other players (Golden Knights prospect Trevor Connelly) expected to make the team, but all of that is a byproduct of an awesome freshman season at North Dakota where the forward has 10 goals in his first 18 collegiate games.
"Will raised his hand at North Dakota over the last three weeks and really propelled that team," said USA Hockey assistant executive director of hockey operations John Vanbiesbrouck. "He was so close to being originally named to the roster, but we just felt that he could add something, could play up in your lineup. When you have a guy that could do that, there was no point in just limiting ourselves to 15 forwards."
Zellers was the jewel from the Colorado Avalanche organization that came to Boston in the Charlie Coyle at the trade deadline last season, and joins a slew of assets like Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov and Casey Mittelstadt that were add to the team during last spring’s roster fire sale.
It looks like Zellers has the talent to be something truly special; however, as standing out at the World Junior tournament among your peers is a great barometer for future success at the NHL level for so many of these hopefuls.
"I've put a lot of work in, shooting like 10,000 pucks every summer," said Zellers to NHL.com. "I never want to be
