A golden effort for Brindley at the World Juniors

Thanks to stacked 2004 birth year that included CBJ second-round pick Gavin Brindley, Team USA headed to Sweden as the odds-on favorite to win the 2024 IIHF World Juniors.

Sports can be unpredictable, but the pundits were right. Team USA didn’t lose any of its seven games at the event, romping to the United States’ first win since 2021 and fifth since 2010.

The gold medal was clinched in Friday’s tournament final, as the Americans took a 3-2 lead into the third period against host Sweden and extended it into a 6-2 final, leaving little doubt who deserved to win this year’s version of the popular international event.

“This ‘04 group is so good and so talented, and we have these ‘05s with us that just help us even more,” Brindley told NHL Network after the win. “It’s just so much fun to win, especially with this group of brothers that we bonded over for four weeks. It’s pretty cool how you become a family so fast.”

Team USA was forced to overtime just once, beating Czechia in a shootout in the round robin, and in all outscored opponents 45-15. The only two games in doubt near the end were the Czechia shootout and the semifinal victory over Finland in which first-round pick Cutter Gauthier scored the winning power-play goal in the final five minutes.

Brindley assisted on that Gauthier goal, as well as the winning tally in the gold-medal contest by Isaac Howard in the second period. That capped an impressive tournament for Brindley in which he finished with a 6-4-10 line in seven games in his second appearance on the American squad at the event.

His six goals tied for third at the tournament and those 10 points tied for fourth, and Brindley was named one of the top three players for Team USA by team staff thanks to his energy, tenacity, speed and skill that all showed through at the tournament.

It’s not a huge surprise, as the talented Brindley has essentially been a point-per-game player the past two seasons at the University of Michigan, including a 10-8-18 line this season in 18 games. Last year, he had 12-26-38 in 41 games while playing with CBJ first-rounder Adam Fantilli.

From here, Brindley will return to U-M as a gold medalist. He’ll try to help lead the Wolverines to a deep run in the NCAA tournament and then consider his options for the future, though right now, that’s far from what’s on Brindley’s mind.

“It’s pretty crazy,” he said of today’s win. “I’m at a loss for words. Just an unbelievable group of guys. A dream come true.”

It’s the third straight season in which a CBJ draft pick won gold at the World Juniors, with Brindley joining Canadians Kent Johnson (2022) and Adam Fantilli (2003).