reckoning
Registered User
- Jan 4, 2005
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In the outstanding hockey encyclopedia Total Hockey which came out in 1998, there was an article about the 1998 Nagano Olympics and looked ahead to the 2002 and 2006 Olympics and projected what the rosters would look like. They correctly predicted 13 of the roster spots for the Canadian 2002 team, which is pretty good considering it was done 3 or 4 years in advance; but imagine how tough it would be to predict the rosters 7 or 8 years in advance, when nobody currently 25 or under was even in the NHL yet.
I thought it would be interesting to look at what they picked for the 2006 team back then. It looks like they`ll have 8 correct selections here, possibly 1 or 2 more. This isn`t meant to be a critique of the list, just a reminder of how often the can`t miss prospects actually do miss.
Canada:
Martin Brodeur
Marc Denis
Roberto Luongo
Chris Pronger
Scott Neidermayer
Kyle McLaren
Ed Jovanovski
Eric Brewer
Richard Jackman
Derek Morris
Paul Kariya
Eric Lindros
Jeff Friesen
Mike Peca
Jarome Iginla
Ryan Smyth
Eric Daze
Joe Thornton
Brendan Morrison
Rob Niedermayer
Vincent Lecavalier
Rico Fata
Chris Gratton
Here`s the U.S.A. predictions, which look to be far less accurate:
Jim Carey
Brian Boucher
Jean-Marc Pelletier
Derian Hatcher
Bryan Berard
Scott Lachance
Paul Mara
Nik Tselios
Mike McBain
Brad Winchester
Keith Tkachuk
Jamie Langenbrunner
Steve Konowalchuk
Adam Deadmarsh
Brian Rolston
David Legwand
Eric Rasmussen
Matt Cullen
Tim Connolly
Ty Jones
Chris Drury
Marty Reasoner
Scott Gomez
I thought it would be interesting to look at what they picked for the 2006 team back then. It looks like they`ll have 8 correct selections here, possibly 1 or 2 more. This isn`t meant to be a critique of the list, just a reminder of how often the can`t miss prospects actually do miss.
Canada:
Martin Brodeur
Marc Denis
Roberto Luongo
Chris Pronger
Scott Neidermayer
Kyle McLaren
Ed Jovanovski
Eric Brewer
Richard Jackman
Derek Morris
Paul Kariya
Eric Lindros
Jeff Friesen
Mike Peca
Jarome Iginla
Ryan Smyth
Eric Daze
Joe Thornton
Brendan Morrison
Rob Niedermayer
Vincent Lecavalier
Rico Fata
Chris Gratton
Here`s the U.S.A. predictions, which look to be far less accurate:
Jim Carey
Brian Boucher
Jean-Marc Pelletier
Derian Hatcher
Bryan Berard
Scott Lachance
Paul Mara
Nik Tselios
Mike McBain
Brad Winchester
Keith Tkachuk
Jamie Langenbrunner
Steve Konowalchuk
Adam Deadmarsh
Brian Rolston
David Legwand
Eric Rasmussen
Matt Cullen
Tim Connolly
Ty Jones
Chris Drury
Marty Reasoner
Scott Gomez