Defenseman Justin Faulk, who played a total of 56 games with the Charlotte Checkers, has earned a spot on the 2014 U.S. Olympic Team.
Faulk was one of 25 players named in the official announcement that immediately followed the annual NHL Winter Classic event on New Year’s Day. The 21-year-old most recently played for Charlotte last season, suiting up for 31 games during the NHL’s lockout.
Faulk, the Carolina Hurricanes’ second-round draft choice in 2010, made his professional debut with the Checkers during their 2011 playoff run that immediately followed his NCAA championship victory as a freshman with the University of Minnesota-Duluth, recording two assists in 13 games for his first professional points. Over the course of a 12-game stint the following season, Faulk netted his first professional goal against the Houston Aeros.
All of those professional firsts – game played, point earned and goal scored – occurred at Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena.
A mainstay on the Hurricanes’ defense despite his age (he is the youngest player on the U.S. roster), Faulk has 53 points (6g, 37a) in 144 NHL games. A member of the league’s 2011-12 All-Rookie Team, the South St. Paul, Minnesota, native previously represented his country at the 2010 U-18 World Junior Championship, where he scored the tournament-winning goal, the 2011 World Junior Championship and the IIHF World Championships in 2012 and 2013.
