How Good would team North America be? (read OP)

[Dion TheFluff]

say you dropped team North America (U24 squad) into the 4 nations tournament, where would they rank amongst the 4 other rosters/countries?

this is the hypothetical lineup I made up
Boldy J. Hughes Caufield
Jarvis Cooley Guenther
Johnston Celebrini Bedard
Knies McMichael Holloway
Johnson

Sanderson Faber
Harley Vlasic
Power Byram
Hutson

Wolf
Knight
Fowler

Click to read more...

 

[hamzarocks]

Worst

This group of talent doesnt have a

Mcdavid
Mackinnon
Matthews

Level player

 

[tarheelhockey]

That defense would get touched.

 

[McNuge]

worst by far

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

That defense would get touched.

Tbf, that was the presumption (and the actual weakness I guess) of the 2016 team, which nevertheless held its own that tournament. Iirc, Shayne Gostisbehere was the most accomplished/biggest name on that D-corps.

What I believe speaks against a 2025 iteration which had worked well for them in 2016, is that they were outskating the old, slower guard of the NHL. Their generation has defined the current era NHL and I don’t think the younger generation can pounce on the same weaknesses.

Worst

This group of talent doesnt have a

Mackinnon

Level player

Mackinnon stalled in his development and wouldn’t clear his rookie season marks of 24-39-63 until the 2017-18 season, his fifth in the NHL.

 

[centipede2233]

I could see this team beating Finland.

 

[daver]

Worst

This group of talent doesnt have a Crosby, or even a

Mcdavid
Mackinnon
Matthews

Level player

Fixed

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Fixed

Seems beside the point since Crosby unlike McDavid, Matthews and Mackinnon didn’t play on the former North America team.

daver’s gotta daver though!

 

[daver]

Seems beside the point since Crosby unlike McDavid, Matthews and Mackinnon didn’t play on the former North America team.

daver’s gotta daver though

Little pedantic I think.

The OP didn't ask if they would do better or worse than than the former NA team, it asked where it would be ranked so, no, it is not besides the point to say they don't have a Crosby.

 

[hamzarocks]

Fixed

1. Mcdavid > Crosby so no idea why you got the or even after Crosby when its Mcdavid or even a Crosby

2. Crosby didnt play for team NA so he isnt relevant to the comparison

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Little pedantic I think.

The OP didn't ask if they would do better or worse than than the former NA team, it asked where it would be ranked so, no, it is not besides the point to say they don't have a Crosby.

Matthews, Mackinnon and McDavid are relevant to the comparison only because they’d actually featured on something called Team North America the last time the NHL arranged an international tournament, and because they outdid expectations that time. It’s clear the poster’s quote referred to that iteration of Team NA.

 

[banks]

That team would be last place. The blueline and goalies are clearly a weakness. The forwards group, while talented, doesn't have the star power to make up for it.

 

[Dion TheFluff]

That team would be last place. The blueline and goalies are clearly a weakness. The forwards group, while talented, doesn't have the star power to make up for it.

blueline is way better than Finlands

 

[I am not exposed]

Behind Sweden but ahead of Finland. So 4th.

 

[Regal]

blueline is way better than Finlands

Yea I don’t understand the comments. The blue line is pretty decent. Faber is already on USA and Sanderson was a consideration, and Vlasic likely will be a consideration for 2026. Meanwhile Harley is the call up for Canada with Theodore going down.

 

[Dion TheFluff]

Yea I don’t understand the comments. The blue line is pretty decent. Faber is already on USA and Sanderson was a consideration, and Vlasic likely will be a consideration for 2026. Meanwhile Harley is the call up for Canada with Theodore going down.

Sanderson made USA with Hughes out IIRC. Yeah, I think this team would actually be really close to the Swedes TBH

 

[missionAvs]

This team would get slapped by all 4 of the current teams.

 

[Regal]

Sanderson made USA with Hughes out IIRC. Yeah, I think this team would actually be really close to the Swedes TBH

Yea, I forgot about Sanderson being the injury replacement.

The roster is deeper than Finland’s and with a much better defense imo, especially with Heiskanen out. I don’t know if any of their D even make this roster. Maybe Lindell. They have better star forwards, but only about half the forwards would make it as well. The Finns seem to play better as a team though so this one would need to gel