Trouba, Palushaj join Team USA for World Championship

By Michael Caples –

Team USA announced three more additions to their World Championship roster, and two of them are former Wolverines.

Livonia native Aaron Palushaj and Rochester native Jacob Trouba, both University of Michigan products, were named to the American team that will compete in the upcoming 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s World Championship.

The tournament will take place in Helsinki, Finland, and Stockholm, Sweden, from May 3-19.

Palushaj, a forward for the Colorado Avalanche, represented Team USA at the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship. In 25 NHL contests this season, he has two goals and seven assists.

Trouba is currently with the Winnipeg Jets organization, the team that drafted him ninth overall at last summer’s NHL Draft. In his only season with the Wolverines, Trouba was named an All-American. He has won gold with Team USA three different times, most recently as an alternate captain for the U.S. squad that won the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship in Rusia. Trouba was named the tournament’s best defenseman.

Trouba and Palushaj join Jeff Petry and Matt Hunwick as the Michigan natives currently on the Team USA roster.