By Gary Anderson

The United States has announced it's ice sledge hockey squad for the 2014-2015 season ©Getty Images Fresh from retaining the ice sledge hockey Paralympic title in Sochi in March, USA Hockey has named a 17-strong squad for the 2014-2015 season, which sees 11 members of the gold medal-winning team return to action.

A total of 52 players took part in two days of trials in Williamsville, New York after which coach Jeff Sauer whittled his squad down to the final 17 names that will take a crack at winning a third World  Championship next year.

Two-time Paralympic gold medallist Steve Cash will once again man the net for a 10th season, with Kyle Kuckaby as his understudy.

Ahead of them in defence will be double Paralympic gold medallists Niko Landeros and Josh Pauls along with Tyler Carron.

They are joined by newcomers Sam Mumper and Billy Hanning.

Forwards Chris Douglas, Luke McDermott and Josh Misiewicz are the other new faces to the squad and they will be joined in attack by seven of the team that defeated Russia in the gold medal match at Sochi 2014.

Leading the attack will be rising star Declan Farmer who picked up the International Paralympic Committee's award for Best Male Athlete of Sochi 2014 after his performances at the Games.

Fellow gold medal winners Dan McCoy, Kevin McKee, Adam Page, Paul Schaus, Josh Sweeney and Brody Roybal complete the line-up.

Brody Roybal and Declan Farmer are two of the players set to star for the US this coming season ©Getty Images Brody Roybal and Declan Farmer are two of the players set to star for the US this coming season ©Getty Images



Sauer, who will be in charge of the side for a fourth season, will no doubt start working and planning with his squad for the World Championships next year which will be hosted on home soil at the Harbor Center in Buffalo, New York from April 24 to May 2.

He will do so without the services of two stalwarts of the side after double Paralympic gold medal winning captain Andy Yohe and fellow two-time champion Taylor Lipsett both announced their retirements earlier this month.

Meanwhile, three other members of the successful squad in Sochi, Taylor Chace, Rico Roman and Greg Shaw, announced that they were taking a year out.

The US hosted the 2000 Championships in Utah which was won by rivals Canada, while they also beat the Americans in last year's gold medal match in Goyang, South Korea.

The US wins came in 2009 in Ostrava, Czech Republic and in Hamar, Norway in 2012.

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