PLYMOUTH, Mich. -- Trey Augustine has taken tremendous pride being the last line of defense on the biggest stage at the college or international levels.
The 19-year-old Michigan State goalie will be asked to do it one final time in his third year of eligibility for the United States at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship.
"I just feel old now," Augustine said with a grin. "I kind of felt young at the start, like I was a little above my level, but now I just feel comfortable, feel like I'm one of the old guys on the team."
And that's good news for the U.S. National Junior Team because having a savvy veteran in net at the most prestigious hockey tournament for under-20 players is a huge bonus.
Augustine (6-foot-1, 193 pounds), chosen by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round (No. 41) of the 2023 NHL Draft, might be the best at his position among the 10 countries participating in the tournament in Ottawa from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5. He's who national junior team general manager John Vanbiesbrouck calls a unique player.
"We've only had a couple guys get this much experience when it comes to World Under-18 Championship, World Juniors, and when you have that level of experience, it means a lot," said Vanbiesbrouck, a retired goalie and 2007 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame inductee. "He's already a mature kid, but I see more maturity in him. I see he's very comfortable, but as a player, he's elite. He's got the mentality for goaltending, for the position, to move on after negative things and that's hard qualities to teach young guys. He's ready to play, starts on time ... the sky's the limit."
Jack Campbell (2010-12) and Alan Perry (1984-86) are the only other United States goalies to see action in three straight World Junior events. Augustine is 8-1-0 with a 2.20 goals-against average and .911 save percentage in 10 tournament games.
"I always say I'm a competitive, athletic goalie," Augustine said. "I just kind of use my skating to kind of put myself in position to make saves. That pretty much describes my game."
Augustine and Jacob Fowler (Montreal Canadiens) contributed to the gold-medal winning performance at the 2024 WJC in Gothenburg, Sweden. Augustine won four starts with a 1.75 GAA and .936 save percentage. He made 19 saves, including several in the final minutes of a 3-2 win against Finland in the semifinal round, and 24 saves in a 6-2 victory against Sweden for the gold medal.
"It's nice to have a familiarity with him," United States coach David Carle said. "He's a mature kid, a winner and leader amongst the group in a lot of ways. He just has another level of pedigree to him now and with winning a year ago, and to have him back, that stabilizing force in goal will be a huge asset for us."
Augustine won four games and had a 2.85 GAA to help the United States win bronze after defeating Sweden 8-7 in the third-place game at the 2023 WJC in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
"Anytime you can look in net and see someone that has the resume he has, it tends to give the team and the coaches a tremendous amount of confidence that if there's breakdowns, he's back there to kind of make up for it," U.S. goaltending coach David Lassonde said. "I think one of the things we often talk to our goalies about is the importance of preparation and how that helps when it comes time to perform.
"When you think about the types of things that Trey's done over the course of the last four years, including a (2021 Under-15 national championship) with his Honeybaked team in Detroit, the kid knows how to win. You combine that with the fact he's played as an underage for us at the 2023 World Juniors and now playing a real tough schedule at Michigan State ... all those things are preparing him for these types of moments and despite the fact this tournament is difficult, that preparation allows him to be able to deal with those difficult moments you face."
Augustine is 11-2-1 with a 1.98 GAA, .930 save percentage and two shutouts in 14 games (all starts) as a sophomore with Michigan State this season.
"I think if you watch my film from almost two years ago to now, I'm pretty similar," Augustine said. "It's just kind of refining some stuff, small tweaks. Just cleaner post entries, skating, rebound control, playing the puck."
Augustine is aware he needs to get up to speed quickly to make sure he's prepared from the get-go.
"One of the things we talk about with our goalies all the time is if you want to have success at the higher levels of hockey, your game has to be sustainable," Lassonde said. "In other words, it has to transfer from every level of hockey you play. Those goalies have the ability to step right into an event no matter what that preparation looks like and a lot of it has to do with the fact they have great habits in their game.
"When you think about Trey and some of the other elite goalies we've had over the years, they check those boxes."
