IIHF – Leonard is excited to take the lead

The confident Leonard, 19, is back to serve as U.S. captain at the 2025 World Juniors in Ottawa. The power forward with a shoot-first mentality is playing as a freshman at Boston College in his native Massachusetts this year and is looking to help the U.S. win back-to-back World Juniors for the first time ever. The Athletic suggested before the tournament that Leonard could be the “best striker on the tournament’s best line” and lead the scoring.

Of his appointment as captain, Leonard told IIHF.com: “It’s a true honor. We all sacrificed a lot to get to this tournament, but for the right reasons. It’s great to represent your country at international level in the sport you love and I can’t take it for granted.”

Leonard skated alongside clever Boston College teammates James Hagens and Gabe Perreault, who enjoyed four points, and added an assist in a 10-4 tournament-opening win over Germany on Boxing Day.

“Not many people really get to play at their school and then come to these tournaments as a line,” said Leonard, who led all U.S. forwards with 19:19 of ice time. “It’s a lot of fun and we’re very lucky.”

Returning head coach David Carle recognizes his captain’s special presence: “He does a great job making the group feel comfortable with each other. You know, when things go wrong, you look at your leaders on the bench. The things he said there in the second half I think helped calm everyone down and get us back to work.”

Leonard is part of a long tradition of highly skilled, disruptive American forwards, from Jeremy Roenick and Tony Amonte in the 1990s to Trevor Zegras and Matthew Tkachuk today.

The Amherst-born winger doesn’t shy away from such comparisons. He has compared his style not only to that of Tkachuk – who helped the Florida Panthers win their first Stanley Cup this year – but also to that of Zach Hyman of the Edmonton Oilers and Alex Tuch of the Buffalo Sabres, both recent Cup finalists.

Leonard made his first major piece of international history at the 2023 IIHF U18 Ice Hockey World Championship. He scored the winner from close range in overtime as the United States came back from a two-goal deficit to beat Sweden 3-2 in Basel, Switzerland.