Matty Beniers to join team USA for 2025 IIHF Men’s Worlds
By Jayd Serdy, edited by Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Seattle Kraken forward and alternate captain Matty Beniers is expected to join Team USA for the annual IIHF Men’s World Championship this summer, per reports. Beniers has played for team USA at the senior level in the 2021 Men’s Worlds and the 2022 Olympics, making this potentially his third event wearing the USA colors during his young professional career.
Beniers has 41 points (18 goals, 23 assists) across 76 games this season for the Kraken, his first year wearing a letter, third full season in the NHL and fourth season in the league overall. We saw some of his talent re-emerge following the December trade when the Kraken acquired Kappo Kakko from the New York Rangers.
When playing with Team USA in 2021, Beniers dressed for six games and earned one goal and one assist. His lone goal in that tournament came in the preliminary round of the event, an insurance goal as Sasha Chmelevski and Brian Boyle assisted during USA’s 4-2 victory over Latvia on May 27th, 2021. His lone assist of the tournament came on Kevin Labanc’s second goal, and team USA’s second goal of their final preliminary round game, as they beat Italy by a final score of 4-2 on June 1st, 2021. During the 2022 Winter Olympics, he tallied one goal and one assist over four games. His lone goal of this tournament came in team USA’s opening game of the preliminary round, an 8-0 victory over China as Beniers scored the 7th of the night for his country, assisted by Nick Abruzzese and Brian Cooper. His lone assist of the 2022 Winter Olympics came in team USA’s shootout loss to Slovakia in the quarterfinal round of the tournament, assisting on Nick Abruzzese’s goal in the first period, a goal that tied the game at one each.
Seattle Kraken centerman and alternate captain Matty Beniers throughout the 2024-25 NHL season at Climate pledge Arena. (Photos by Nate Koppelman for Circling Seattle Sports)
The 2025 IIHF Men’s World Championship games are taking place in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark from May 9th through the 25th. The tournament is separated into two groups, Group A and Group B. Group A consists of teams Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Latvia and Slovakia. Group B consists of teams Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Norway, Switzerland, and USA. The games can be streamed through IIHF.tv with a subscription, or on NHL Network.
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