For a country like Slovenia that too is different as they have to go through qualifiers to get to the Olympics which already is a difficult challenge for them. Then there's the fact that the NHL generally has not let their players participate in these qualifiers although they were exceptionally allowed to participate in the qualifiers for the Pyeonchang Olympics despite then not being allowed to participate in the Olympic Games themselves.
That's a fair point.
I guess the really small countries that don't make the A pool very often are screwed.
Tier 1: Big 5/6/7 countries (I'm not going to debate how many) that produce star players annually.
Tier 2: Secondary countries that produce players consistently but stars relatively rarely.
Tier 3: Tertiary countries that rely on one or two star players out of the blue to be competitive.
I'd say Tier 1 teams benefit at the WJC because they have a dependable source of star talent.
IMHO, they have a larger advantage over Tier 2 and Tier 3 teams at the WJCs than they do at senior level tournaments because the fluctuations in talent level don't affect them as much, except in cases where the Tier 3 team can't even qualify for those senior tournaments because of NHL participation issues.
I'd say Tier 2 countries typically perform better at senior-level tournaments because they have access to the larger pool of players. The depth advantage IMO that the big countries have isn't as pronounced at the senior level because they can only ice 18 players, despite the fact that they can access more of their best players. IMO, this is why you typically see more upsets at the senior level between Tier 2 and Tier 1 nations.
But that's just my opinion of course.
When I'm referring to senior level tournaments, I'm referring to tournaments where countries have access to their entire pool of players, as opposed to the World Championships where the vagaries of NHL playoff participation can have disproportionate impact on different types of countries.
With increasing European participation in the NHL, I'm curious as to whether Canada's position at these tournaments is actually strengthening. The US is an odd duck because they are simply producing more players so they should become more competitive at the WCs on the basis of sheer numbers.