WC: Great Britain 2024 roster talk

[Khokhlach86]

Preliminary roster

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[aquaregia]

Mmm close to the best we could send, bar an injured Waller
Some eyebrows might be raised by Conway being omitted again but not too surprised given that Russell promotes locker-room harmony quite strongly, and given our limited talent pool compared to our peers having a team that believes in each other and what the coach is doing is probably the only way to punch above our weight and stay in the division.

Expecting it to all come down to the Austria game again but we have taken Norway and Denmark to OT in the recent past too, so being optimistic there are perhaps three games out of the seven we have a fighting chance in.

Does anyone who follows the Czech league have an appraisal of how Kirk is doing there btw? Seen his impressive playoff scoring stats but is that representative of his overall play?

 

[Eye of Ra]

Mmm close to the best we could send, bar an injured Waller
Some eyebrows might be raised by Conway being omitted again but not too surprised given that Russell promotes locker-room harmony quite strongly, and given our limited talent pool compared to our peers having a team that believes in each other and what the coach is doing is probably the only way to punch above our weight and stay in the division.

Expecting it to all come down to the Austria game again but we have taken Norway and Denmark to OT in the recent past too, so being optimistic there are perhaps three games out of the seven we have a fighting chance in.

Does anyone who follows the Czech league have an appraisal of how Kirk is doing there btw? Seen his impressive playoff scoring stats but is that representative of his overall play?

Not having Conway is a big blow playing wise. He is a top player in slovak league.
Where is Lewis Hook?

 

[aquaregia]

Hook apparently has some beef with the Whistle brothers, which also contributed to him leaving Belfast last year. Again a good scorer but not really essential, I rate Neilson from what I saw of him in IA - what I'm most concerned about once again is our defensive corps, Halbert has been a great addition but the core of Dave Phillips, Richardson and O'Connor are all in their late 30s now, and Tetlow's career has stalled a bit after coming back to the UK from the Mestis.

So no surprise that trusted two-way players like Lacho, Davies and Dowd are still called up over better goalscorers that might disrupt the squad atmosphere.

 

[aquaregia]

Also on twitter seen the name of Ty Glover come up, a Canadian in the AHL/ECHL who just so happened to be born in the UK while his father was playing in Manchester.

Don't really know anything about how he plays but given he's getting minutes in the AHL probably would have something to offer to the squad if he were ever called up.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Brett Perlini, born in Canada, college hockey in the US, and plays for UK.

Brendan Perlini, born in UK, plays in US, and would represent Canada if chosen.

Funny stuff.

 

[JimXVX]

As ever when we play in the top tier, it'll be a case of scraping a win or two and escaping relegation by the skin of our teeth. Frankly, it's a bloody miracle we're even there.

Interesting to see Kirk has just signed with Berlin in the DEL. Not sure if it's a step up or down from the Czech league, but a great place to live and work for him.

 

[Playmaker82]

Jukurit, Litvinov and Eisbären Berlin is kind of the same level. Jukurit a little better though, and Liiga is a better League than the two others. Then I would say that Eisbären Berlin is a step up from Litvinov. Good year now, with second place in the league, and on the way to finals in the playoffs.

But smart of Kirk. Three different styles and cultures. Berlin is a nice city.

 

[PanniniClaus]

As ever when we play in the top tier, it'll be a case of scraping a win or two and escaping relegation by the skin of our teeth. Frankly, it's a bloody miracle we're even there.

Interesting to see Kirk has just signed with Berlin in the DEL. Not sure if it's a step up or down from the Czech league, but a great place to live and work for him.

I agree - it's pretty damn amazing they play amongst the world's best. Credit to their team spirit.

 

[Khokhlach86]

Forwards Sam Duggan and Logan Neilson have been added to the Great Britain squad after Brandon Whistle had to withdraw because of injury.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Interesting to see Kirk has just signed with Berlin in the DEL. Not sure if it's a step up or down from the Czech league, but a great place to live and work for him.

League is probably not a step up but he is moving from one of the poorest teams in the country to one of the richest teams in the richer country. He moved from the club with 2,5k average attendance, to 4,5k average attendance, to 12k average attendance. In hockey, moving up or down is reflected in dollars and cents at the end of the day.

Jukurit a little better though, and Liiga is a better League than the two others.

At this point, it's extremely debatable. Half of the Finnish league is basically development teams, at this point. And Jukurit is a great example, once again, one of the poorer Czech league teams managed to lure Kirk away. Liiga has 5/15 teams with average attendance above 3k, it's a miracle they managed to hang in there with the big leagues as is. DEL, by comparison, has no teams with average attendance lower than 3k and league-wide average attendance of 7k.

If you look at the scoring rates of players who have played in DEL and Liiga recently, they too are practically identical and that is only thanks to strong young local Finnish talent playing at relatively discount prices.

Edit: Further evidence provided moments ago by Oskars Batna moving to Hradec Kralove after his breakout season in Jukurit.

 

[Khokhlach86]

Final roster

 

[aquaregia]

Norway's roster's maybe looking a little bit too strong to be within reach but I'm living in hope we can make the Austria and Denmark games competitive at least.