After a week in Windsor, Ont., for the 2026 World Junior Summer Showcase, the road to the 2027 World Juniors in Edmonton and Red Deer is officially underway for Canada, USA, Sweden and Finland.The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, Scott Wheeler and Max Bultman all attended games at the WFCU Centre. Here are their roster and lineup projections for each of the four teams that participated, plus recent tournament contender Czechia.Family, friends and cows: How one player celebrated the NHL DraftPeter Baugh and Madison EadesThis year’s Team Canada will lack a game-breaker up front, but this roster still features 15 first-round picks plus two top 2027 prospects in Dima Zhilkin (a standout in Windsor) and Landon DuPont (who will represent Canada at the Hlinka this week and wasn’t in Windsor but projects as a top-four D on this team).This age group also missed a game-breaker at its U18 Worlds and still won gold, too. There, it was led by Cole Reschny, Brady Martin, Braeden Cootes, Jack Ivankovic and several of these blueliners. Add Caleb Desnoyers, Caleb Malhotra and Jake O’Brien (who wasn’t in Windsor due to tendinitis in his knee) to that group from the U18s, and you’ve got a very deep crop of well-rounded forwards.As always, expect at least four eligible Canadians to be in the NHL (likely Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa, Gavin McKenna and Ben Kindel), too.Up front, our last cuts were Dallas Stars prospect Cameron Schmidt, who was on that U18 team and whom Wheeler felt should be on this one to give them a one-shot scorer (Pronman and Bultman were partial to Shea Busch instead), and Los Angeles Kings prospect Jimmy Lombardi. Canada has talked about getting back to running teams out of the building with physicality, which helps the cases of the highly competitive Ethan Czata (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Chase Harrington (Calgary Flames), who round out the forward group for us.On defense, there was also debate around the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Jackson Smith (one of the last cuts for last year’s team and a member of that U18 team that won) versus New York Rangers prospect Charlie Morrison, a more hard-nosed type. All of Carson Carels, Keaton Verhoeff and Smith had up-and-down weeks but are top players in their respective age groups.They’ll need Ivankovic to be the top goalie in the tournament, offense from the back end, and a player like O’Brien (who hasn’t been a top dog for Canada internationally in the past) to make a lot of plays in order to win gold.Of note, Reschny and Cootes both wore the “C” this week for Canada.After a disappointing quarterfinal exit at the 2026 World Juniors, Team USA entered the Summer Showcase with a whole lot of questions about this year’s team. But the Americans appeared to find a couple of important answers this week.Top of the list was Wyatt Cullen, who played center all week and looked the part. That checks a big box for a team that looked short on offense down the middle. Cullen’s line with Mikey Berchild and Ethan Wyttenbach was Team USA’s best line all week, and Wyttenbach — who led college hockey in scoring last season — looked like the kind of reliable finisher the Americans will need this winter.Down the lineup, Brooks Rogowski and Teddy Mutryn had strong camps, showing both grit and offense, and both look ticketed for the roster based on what they showed in Windsor. Carter Sanderson, who had a hat trick on Day 1, was another standout who blended production with some edge.