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U18: Five Nations Tournament in Plymouth, USA (5-11 February)

Speyer

Speyer

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Sep 23, 2016
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Hinterland said:
No. Clubs have no choice but to release their players for a maximum of nine games over the four IIHF breaks every season. This is very much Leon Muggli not wanting to play. While it's possible his club asked him to do so, EV Zug couldn't stop him from going for as long as he's healthy.
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I am aware of the IIHF rule. But as you said Zug probably has alot of informal influence over Mugglis decision making. If Tangnes were to tell him they dindnt think it was a good idea to report, I doubt he would decide against that advice. But in the end all we can do is speculate in that regard. I think Zug played a role in this though. From an individual perspective he is passing up an opportunity to present himself to the NHL scouts. But from a team perspective its not like he needs to be at his tournament anyway for whatever reason. He has been an integral part of the 06 team for over two years now and can slip right back into his old role at the U18s.
 
Hinterland

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Speyer said:
I am aware of the IIHF rule. But as you said Zug probably has alot of informal influence over Mugglis decision making. If Tangnes were to tell him they dindnt think it was a good idea to report, I doubt he would decide against that advice. But in the end all we can do is speculate in that regard. I think Zug played a role in this though. From an individual perspective he is passing up an opportunity to present himself to the NHL scouts. But from a team perspective its not like he needs to be at his tournament anyway for whatever reason. He has been an integral part of the 06 team for over two years now and can slip right back into his old role at the U18s.
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Well, he was honestly pretty underwhelming in Sweden.
Also, rejecting SIHF national teams invites is playing with fire, we've learned that over the last years. They don't care the slightest bit about big names.
 
Speyer

Speyer

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Hinterland said:
Well, he was honestly pretty underwhelming in Sweden.
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He has been underwhelming overall but he hasn't been that bad either aside from the boarding and the extremely difficult game vs an incredibly skilled US team. He was also rock solid in the most important game vs Sweden only making one mistake while killing a lot of Swedish offense and logging in huge minutes. He was a double underager in that tournament as well. And those rarely do well at the WJC unless they are absolute blue chip prospects. Now we are talking about the U18's again. As I said he has been playing with those guys for years; has attended the Ivan Hlinka and a U18 WJC before. I don't think he has anything left to prove at the exhibition level anymore.

Hinterland said:
Also, rejecting SIHF national teams invites is playing with fire, we've learned that over the last years. They don't care the slightest bit about big names.
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I think its somewhat likely that the feds were informed in advance about the decline and are okay with it. Or at least they wont do anything about it. I mean he didn't go to the exhibition tournament in the fall either and it didn't seem to impact his role at the WJC in the slightest. I am also not sure if Fischer and Weibel can keep up their ridiculous "commitment-policy" much longer anyways. They haven't even said anything regarding Bichsel declining for the WJC yet. And Bichsel himself alluded in an interview recently he had a "fruitful" talk with Fischer about his future on the national team. So that doesn't give me the impression of another cold war on the horizon between the two parties.
 
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William H Bonney

William H Bonney

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WarriorofTime said:
So it’s a last chance for borderline demotion candidates to prove they should stay up for the U18s?
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Pretty much. The U17s promotions, if any, that will start happening aren't guaranteed to lead to inclusion on the IIHF U18 team. They usually are but not always. But once a U18 is demoted they don't come back from it.
 
Pavel Buchnevich

Pavel Buchnevich

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USA destroyed Switzerland. Only guy out of the lineup right now is Humphreys. I suspect he’s injured. If he makes it back I think his roster spot is safe for Worlds. This is usually the last tournament before promotions/demotions.

Goalies have been set. I don’t think anyone is getting demoted. Kempf will start and potentially someone is promoted to be 2 or 3, depending on where confidence is in Parsons. He’s had a terrible season, but his last few starts have been better. Defense pairs is hard to read much into. They are completely jumbled right now. Probably one of them is going down, but you can’t read that much into the pairs right now. Probably Laurila going down, but potentially it’s Lapointe (it shouldn’t)?

Forward lines have seen Hagens and Eiserman back together. Plante is riding shotgun with them. Stiga has solidified his roster spot. He’s playing 2nd line right now with Bednarik and Ziemer. I think Van Vliet has solidified 3C. Presumably Humphreys would join him, and potentially one of the U17’s. Or it could be two U17’s. Potentially also Plante or one of the second line wingers is moved to this line (Stiga/Ziemer) if the U17’s playing higher up in the lineup. Baker is playing well, but he should be on line 4. Vansaghi has been playing better in recent months. I suspect he’ll barely hang onto 4RW, and probably McMorrow will be moved to 4LW for a McMorrow-Baker-Vansaghi 4th line. I think Pardue and Epperson are very vulnerable for a demotion.

On the hot-seat: Epperson, Pardue, Vansaghi, Laurila, Lapointe, DRM (I think being 2025 and his potential will carry him to a Worlds roster spot).
 
WarriorofTime

WarriorofTime

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The U17 team overcome a 4-1 deficit at first intermission to beat Finland 8-4 in Czechia this morning. Good resiliency.

Nobody seems like a "must have" for a top 9 role the way Hagens and Eiserman would have been last year, could save a couple guys on the U18 team as I imagine if it's squabbling over the last couple spots they'll lean towards inertia of keeping the group together...

A couple years ago only Ryan Leonard was called up, although after two games they swapped Will Smith in for Marek Hejduk as the 13th forward.
 
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