U.S. Hockey Adds Young and Rafalski

Two-time Olympian Scott Young of the St. Louis Blues and defenseman Brian Rafalski of the New Jersey Devils were added to the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team Monday, bringing the roster to 12.

More announcements are expected this summer, well before the Dec. 22 deadline set by the International Ice Hockey Federation, so players can begin to focus on February’s Salt Lake City Games.

Team USA, which will be coached by 1980 gold medal-winning coach Herb Brooks, has selected two defensemen, 10 forwards and no goaltenders. Each team can have 23 players, including three goalies. Larry Pleau, assistant general manager of the Olympic team and general manager of the Blues, said although team executives aren’t ready to choose their goalies, they wanted to give the other players extra time to prepare.

“We feel it’s very important to start to develop a chemistry now,” he said. “Understanding who they’re going to play with and talking about it over the summer and for the first three months of the season is important.”

Pleau said he hasn’t given up on holding a brief preseason training camp, although the NHL Players Assn. has opposed holding a tryout camp and there is no provision for a pre-tournament gathering in the agreement made by the NHL, NHLPA and IIHF. The NHL will halt its season for 12 days to allow players to represent their homelands, and each Olympic team will have merely one day of practice. The NHL All-Star game, to be played Feb. 2 at Staples Center, is likely to serve as an orientation session.

“It’s not dead,” Pleau said of the idea of holding a camp this summer. “The players themselves would like one. Everybody would like to go on the ice. . . . The main objective is let’s get together for three or four days.”

Although Brooks has suggested the NHL scrap the All-Star game or halt the season earlier to increase Olympic preparation time, NHL spokesman Frank Brown reaffirmed the time frame won’t change.

“The league has said throughout this experience that the season and the all-star competition are inviolate,” he said.

Young, a right wing, scored a team-high 40 goals in the just-completed season. He played on the 1988 and 1992 Olympic teams. Rafalski, a skillful puck handler who spent four seasons in Europe before joining the Devils in 1999, will be a first-time Olympian.

“This has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember,” he said. “I remember watching back in 1980 and to be part of that, and possibly be able to do it again on American soil, is something I’m going to be proud of.”

The first group of players, named in March, included defenseman Brian Leetch of the New York Rangers and forwards Tony Amonte of Chicago, Chris Drury of Colorado, Bill Guerin of Boston, Brett Hull of Dallas, John LeClair of Philadelphia, Mike Modano of Dallas, Jeremy Roenick of Phoenix, Keith Tkachuk of St. Louis and Doug Weight of Edmonton.

The NHL’s Board of Governors, meeting today in New York, will hear a report on preparations for the Olympics and proposals on how to conduct Olympic-themed events in conjunction with the All-Star game at Staples Center.