I am Estonian and I thougth I could clarify our roster a bit.
To borrow the quote, If I had to put Estonia's chances into a percentage, I would say it has none percent chance.
Agreed, but as a fan, I remain hopeful
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Some notable players from our roster (my opinion):
Jõgi and Mürkel - Both have played on a good level In Finnish junior leagues for many years now. They should be the leaders of this team. Both also have experience in WJC.
Kulintsev - Can move the puck very well. The kind of defensman Estonia has always needed, but never had. Played well with men's national team in Baltic Challenge Cup. I think he could be the next star in Estonian hockey.
Bahturin - Probably goint to be the nr1 goaltender. Nothing spectacular, but I think a bit better than CK Jõgi and Mark Teor in previous years. Our goalie situation has never been very strong.
Potsinok twins - 2004 born twins who play very entertainig and fast together. Natural goal scorers. Still young, but they have a chance to emerge as good points producers. One of them has been injured this whole season, but just might be able to make a comback for this tournament.
Filippenko - Has no experience in WJC at all, but he looked good the two games against Lithuania. He can use his big size well. Coach played him the most i believe.
Estonia's 02's is a much weaker age group than 00's, 01's or 04's.
This years team is better than 01's team, simply because it is pretty much the same team other than handful of 01 players. The level is increasingly getting better from 02 up to 06 at least.
In conclusion defensmen other than Kulintsev are quite inexperienced in WJC-s, but on a good day, they will get the job done. I think our D is about the same level as previous 2 tournaments, but surely not worse. Compared to previous 2 tournaments we have less depth in our offence, but goal scoring should not be an issue. I predict that our biggest weakness is that we only have 2 maybe 3 lines who are able to play equally to other teams. So fatigue is gonna be a factor.
Oppenents have better rosters for sure, but since not many of the players have not had the chance to play at the worlds because of Covid, I would not be suprised if this tournament would contain surprising results.
