Rankings of best on best rosters, right now

[jonas2244]

Belarus is on his way back and if they are able to turn their junior results into elite level they'll pass Norway and Denmark and join the group Switzerland, Slovakia, Germany and Latvia.

Switzerland ist the best of those teams not because it has the best players but because it has the best depth of those. Which is a big advantage for World Championship. The Czechs have the better players but the weaker results.

 

[Garl]

1.Canada-obvious
2.USA-rosterwise probably, even though I would still not bet on them in an actualy tournament
3.Sweden-Good Goalies, Superb defense(way ahead of Russia and Finland), good C(ahead of Russia and Finland0 and decent wingers(a little bit below Russia and Finland but still quite nice)
4.Russia-a little bit ahead of Finland
5.Finland
6.Czechia-obvious
7.Switzerland-Better D than Germany
8.Germany
9.Slovakia-Less depth than Germany, also, no Draisaitl/Josi caliber player
10.Denmark-ahead of Latvia, come on, Ehlers and Bjorkstrand are better than anything Latvia has to offer
11.Latvia
12.Norway-goalies are OK, but their best players aged
13.France-No good goalies, bad D
14.Austria-on the rise, new gyus like Rossi, Baumgartner, Payr, Haudum, Zwerger, M.Huber, Nickl look very promising
15.Belarus-lots of imports, their domestic group is not taht good, except for Sharangovich
16.Slovenia-aging group around Kopitar
17.Kazakhstan-similar to Belarus, but even weaker domestic group
18.Italy-getting better actually
19.Hungary-have 2-3 decent players in Europe
20.Poland-More depth than Hungary, but no players of Gallo/Sebok/Hari level

 

[Goodman68]

 

[stastny12]

1. Canada
2.–4. USA/Finland/Russia

5.–6. Czechs/Sweden

7.–8. Germany/Switzerland
9. Slovakia

10.–11.Latvia/Denmark
12.–17. Belarus/France/Norway/Austria/Kazakhstan/Slovenia
18.–19. Italy/GB

 

[Elvs]

1.Canada-obvious
2.USA-rosterwise probably, even though I would still not bet on them in an actualy tournament
3.Sweden-Good Goalies, Superb defense(way ahead of Russia and Finland), good C(ahead of Russia and Finland0 and decent wingers(a little bit below Russia and Finland but still quite nice)
4.Russia-a little bit ahead of Finland
5.Finland
6.Czechia-obvious
7.Switzerland-Better D than Germany
8.Germany
9.Slovakia-Less depth than Germany, also, no Draisaitl/Josi caliber player
10.Denmark-ahead of Latvia, come on, Ehlers and Bjorkstrand are better than anything Latvia has to offer
11.Latvia
12.Norway-goalies are OK, but their best players aged
13.France-No good goalies, bad D
14.Austria-on the rise, new gyus like Rossi, Baumgartner, Payr, Haudum, Zwerger, M.Huber, Nickl look very promising
15.Belarus-lots of imports, their domestic group is not taht good, except for Sharangovich
16.Slovenia-aging group around Kopitar
17.Kazakhstan-similar to Belarus, but even weaker domestic group
18.Italy-getting better actually
19.Hungary-have 2-3 decent players in Europe
20.Poland-More depth than Hungary, but no players of Gallo/Sebok/Hari level

Looks decent overall, though I disagree with Denmark ahead of Latvia. I mean, sure, you could make a case for them being better, but you're making it sound like it's not even close.

Under the current World Championship format, which was introduced in 2012, Denmark has only ranked higher than Latvia in one tournament, and only beat them in two games (one after a shootout).

Not that Latvia has players of Ehlers, Bjorkstrands or Ellers calibre, but their NHL forwards (Blueger, Girgensons, Balcers) would score more than they do if they saw more PP time. And behind Denmark's top trio, Latvia can assemble a better 2nd, 3rd and 4th line, and have the better goaltenders.

Furthermore, many of their European based players are teammates on Dynamo Riga and are very much accustomed to playing with eachother there and on the national team, which gives them another advantage.

 

[kudla]

Sweden has a hockey team ?

 

[jonas2244]

Sweden has a hockey team ?

The football team plays hockey in winter when there is snow and you can't play football I guess.

 

[Goodman68]

1) CAN
2-5) very close
USA
SWE
RUS
FIN
6) CZE
7) SUI
8) GER
9) SVK
10-11) LAT, DEN
12-13) BLR, NOR..

 

[Fjorden]

Elite
1. Canada
2. USA
3. Sweden, Russia and Finland //I think this 5 teams are many steps ahead of the rest

Upper middle class
6. Czech Republic. //The czech are always at least in Quarterfinals. Normally beats the teams below.
7. Switzerland. //The swiss are better than the teams below. Normally reaches QF. Benefits from strong NLA

Middle class
8 . Germany //All the teams below from 8-13 are candidates for the last quarterfinal spot. Draisaitl gives germany an edge!
9. Latvia // Benefits from their KHL team with players that know each other well.
10. Denmark // Have 2 lines of competent NHL/KHL players and lots of SHL backs and a good GK Andersen.
11. Slovakia // Declined a lot the last decade. Used to be top 7.
12. Norway/ Too many old players. Declining. Really Need more young players to step up. Some decent players zucarello +Thoresen+Holøs
13. Belarus// Surprised that they fell out of the elite group for a period.

/ Elevator teams.
14. Austria //Elevator team
15. France. //elevator team
16. Kazakhstan //Elevator team. Many "naturalized" north americans who are pretty good, lacks defence.
17. Slovenia //Elevator team some very good players like Kopitar and Mursak.

Blowout //Have short visits in the elite group.
18. Italy //Surprised to see them in the elite group, blowout team.
19. Great Britain
20. Hungary
21. South Korea

 

[stastny12]

Elite
Middle class
8 . Germany //All the teams below from 8-13 are candidates for the last quarterfinal spot. Draisaitl gives germany an edge!
9. Latvia // Benefits from their KHL team with players that know each other well.
10. Denmark // Have 2 lines of competent NHL/KHL players and lots of SHL backs and a good GK Andersen.
11. Slovakia // Declined a lot the last decade. Used to be top 7.
12. Norway/ Too many old players. Declining. Really Need more young players to step up. Some decent players zucarello +Thoresen+Holøs
13. Belarus// Surprised that they fell out of the elite group for a period.

Unfortunately, I have to strongly disagree with your placement of the Slovak team. Germany has probably the edge over them at the moment. I am not gonna argue that. But other teams lack the depth and solid league with domestic players which can provide players who can compete at a higher level.

Let´s break down their defence, for example. Slovakia has the best defence of all the "middle class" teams. And it is not even close (I would even say it is better than the Swiss defense). Three NHLers (Cernak, Chara, Sekera), another three players included in the NHL taxi squad (Jaros, Marincin, Fehervary). They have also a plenty of more than solid european defencemen. Especially, Cajkovsky (KHL), Gernat, Ceresnak, Daloga, Rosandic (all top Ds in the Czech league), Janosik (SHL), Grman and Knazko (Liiga). In their roster is also one of the most promising young non-drafted players Nemec who is expected to be picked among the top ten players for next year.

Latvia, Denmark and Germany have probably a better goaltending in Merzlikins, Andersen and Grubauer. Although, the Slovaks still have Halak (NHL) and other more than decent goaltenders for WCH, such as Huska (AHL), Hrenak (NCAA), Rybar, Hudacek (KHL) or Tomek (Liiga). They miss the top caliber player like Germans have in Draisaitl, but nobody other than Germany has that kind of player either. Therefore, the depth is again the difference between Slovakia and other "middle class" teams.

 

[Czechboy]

I'm with anti and lambo and see it in tiers:

1. Canada

(small gap)

2 to 5 - Finland, Russia, Sweden, US

(bigger gap)

6 Czechs

(small gap)

7 to 10 - Swiss, German, Slovak, Denmark

I only put Czechs slightly higher than 7 to 10 because we can ice an all NHL roster and we have a lot of young guys starting to establish themselves slowly - Chytil, Zadina, Hajek, Zboril, Korenar, Kaut, Jenik and Necas seems fairly cemented now. Throw in a all NHL goalie trio, a Pastrnak and I feel we have a small edge on 7 to 10. Having said that... any of those national teams could beat us and I wouldn't say it is an upset.

As far as the big 5... they can all win Gold and it isn't an upset. Canada is 1 for sure but they can be beat. The next 4 are all exceptional and can beat anyone in the world on any given day. Russia has the goalies (They have 6 starters.lol) and wingers Sweden has the the all around everything with elite D. US has absolutely everything from generational talents to elite goalies to elite D. Finland has a growing group of young Finn's that are out of this world and more coming. By the 2022 pro on pro Olympics a lot of Finns may have taken the next step as well... eg. what if a guy like Kakko or Kontieniemi start scoring at a .ppg pace by next Xmas. Very likely

 

[Eye of Ra]

So, Sweden that has like 15 Top 4 NHL Ds is below Germany that has 0? Makes sense.

Sweden is number 3 at the moment. Slightly behind USA

germany have better forwards and goalies

 

[Eye of Ra]

Elite
1. Canada
2. USA
3. Sweden, Russia and Finland //I think this 5 teams are many steps ahead of the rest

Upper middle class
6. Czech Republic. //The czech are always at least in Quarterfinals. Normally beats the teams below.
7. Switzerland. //The swiss are better than the teams below. Normally reaches QF. Benefits from strong NLA

Middle class
8 . Germany //All the teams below from 8-13 are candidates for the last quarterfinal spot. Draisaitl gives germany an edge!
9. Latvia // Benefits from their KHL team with players that know each other well.
10. Denmark // Have 2 lines of competent NHL/KHL players and lots of SHL backs and a good GK Andersen.
11. Slovakia // Declined a lot the last decade. Used to be top 7.
12. Norway/ Too many old players. Declining. Really Need more young players to step up. Some decent players zucarello +Thoresen+Holøs
13. Belarus// Surprised that they fell out of the elite group for a period.

/ Elevator teams.
14. Austria //Elevator team
15. France. //elevator team
16. Kazakhstan //Elevator team. Many "naturalized" north americans who are pretty good, lacks defence.
17. Slovenia //Elevator team some very good players like Kopitar and Mursak.

Blowout //Have short visits in the elite group.
18. Italy //Surprised to see them in the elite group, blowout team.
19. Great Britain
20. Hungary
21. South Korea

poland is better than south korea, hungary and italy.

 

[Mathieukferland]

Sweden behind Trinidad and Tobago for me

 

[Garl]

1. Canada
2.–4. USA/Finland/Russia

5.–6. Czechs/Sweden

7.–8. Germany/Switzerland
9. Slovakia

10.–11.Latvia/Denmark
12.–17. Belarus/France/Norway/Austria/Kazakhstan/Slovenia
18.–19. Italy/GB

Sweden is way ahead of Czechia. I mean, they have like 0 TOP4 defensemen come on

 

[Garl]

germany have better forwards and goalies

If Sweden and Germany were the same country the only german players on their joint team would be Grubauer and Draisaitl. But yeah, better forwards and goalies))

 

[Eye of Ra]

If Sweden and Germany were the same country the only german players on their joint team would be Grubauer and Draisaitl. But yeah, better forwards and goalies))

If sweden and germany where the same country:

Kahun - Draisaitl - Stutzle
Kühnhackl - Macek - Reider
Forsberg - Zibanejad - W.Nylander
Michaelis - Sturm - Bergmann

Seider - Holzer
J.Muller - Hedman
Brodin - Klingberg

Grubauer
Greiss
Markstrom

 

[Eye of Ra]

Sweden is way ahead of Czechia. I mean, they have like 0 TOP4 defensemen come on

why is everything about d with you? ever heard of forwards?

 

[Garl]

why is everything about d with you? ever heard of forwards?

Swedish forwards are better than Czech aswell, but the gap at the D is too glaring

 

[Garl]

If sweden and germany where the same country:

Kahun - Draisaitl - Stutzle
Kühnhackl - Macek - Reider
Forsberg - Zibanejad - W.Nylander
Michaelis - Sturm - Bergmann

Seider - Holzer
J.Muller - Hedman
Brodin - Klingberg

Grubauer
Greiss
Markstrom

Interesting, would Minnesota trade Nico Sturm for Nicklas Backstrom?)) Also, interesting, why is Nico behind Eriksson Ek and even Rask in his own team.

And yeah, Khler Brooks Macek(who is a winger btw) is better than Pettersson, Ahlers Kuhnhackl and Bergmann are better than Landeskog/Karlsson/Burakovsky etc

 

[stastny12]

Interesting, would Minnesota trade Nico Sturm for Nicklas Backstrom?)) Also, interesting, why is Nico behind Eriksson Ek and even Rask in his own team.

And yeah, Khler Brooks Macek(who is a winger btw) is better than Pettersson, Ahlers Kuhnhackl and Bergmann are better than Landeskog/Karlsson/Burakovsky etc

You are correct. I have checked this season stats and rosters and I have to admit Sweden would put together a better team than Czechs by a wide margin. I don´t know why, but I thought that Czechs have more NHL defencemen. On the other hand, you were not correct, as well. They have elite D in Filip Hronek.

 

[Namejs]

10.Denmark-ahead of Latvia, come on, Ehlers and Bjorkstrand are better than anything Latvia has to offer

Are we ranking national teams or their top 2-3 players? Also, I'm not sure about Blueger or Balcers being worse than Bjorkstrand and Eller.

Our depth is markedly better.

We have 3 goalies with NHL contracts, a couple of leading young NCAA/AHL goalies, a top tier KHL goalie. Our 5th or 6th goalie is better than the Danish 2nd goalie.

Indrasis (top 6 KHL) - Blueger (NHL) - Darzins (top 6 KHL)
Kenins (ex-NHL) - Abols (PPG in SHL) - Balcers (NHL)
Daugavins (ex-NHL, 0.75 PPG in KHL) - Girgensons (NHL) - Karsums (ex-NHL)
Bukarts (PPG in Czech Extraliga) - Tralmaks (AHL) - Dzierkals (0.5 PPG in KHL)

The forward corps actually looks pretty similar to Denmark. Weaker top 6, slightly better bottom 6.

Same with defencemen. Our 4th and 5th pairing would consist of AHLers/KHLers, which is not very impressive, but we simply have a little more depth at every position.

And since more often than not every national team has issues with snubs and injuries, it usually translates into a pretty major advantage. The more of your best players are not there, the weaker your 4th liners, 3rd pairing Ds. Denmark often has to call up players from their domestic league, which is not even a fully professional league, or the Swedish 2nd division, etc.

You could argue that Latvia and Denmark form a mini-tier of their own and are similar in strength, but you can't really argue for Denmark being better unless you're a North American who's only aware of current leading NHL players.

 

[Czechboy]

Swedish forwards are better than Czech aswell, but the gap at the D is too glaring

Do you have to keep smashing the Czech players?lol

It wasn't a Czech poster who said it, it was a Swedish one. Go yell at him.

No Czech is saying we are better than Sweden.lol

And we have Hronek! When he retires, we'll have Jiriciek... Czechs are only allowed one Top 4 D a decade.... it's the rules.lol Zidlicky before that. Before that we used to be much better and had good D.

FTR... we are not of the same quality as the Top 5 .. no argument however, our World's team and best on best 2022 team both look to be quite good!

Just don't ask me about our Hlinka or U20 team for the World Juniors... they don't look as good.lol

 

[Miro4Norris]

How is Finland better than Russia?

Barkov 1.17ppg
Aho 1.07ppg
Hintz 1.05ppg
Granlund 0.5ppg

+Kotkaniemi, Haula, Filppula..

Malkin 0.88ppg
(Kuznetsov 0.77ppg*, banned from national team games)
Namestnikov 0.33ppg
Grigorenko 0.39ppg
Barbashev 0.29ppg

+Yekov Trenin

Hmmm..

Russia have bit better wingers and maybe goalies, Finland have way better Defense and Centers, more balanced roster and most importantly, they play as a team unlike RUS

 

[Fjorden]

Are we ranking national teams or their top 2-3 players? Also, I'm not sure about Blueger or Balcers being worse than Bjorkstrand and Eller.

Our depth is markedly better.

We have 3 goalies with NHL contracts, a couple of leading young NCAA/AHL goalies, a top tier KHL goalie. Our 5th or 6th goalie is better than the Danish 2nd goalie.

Indrasis (top 6 KHL) - Blueger (NHL) - Darzins (top 6 KHL)
Kenins (ex-NHL) - Abols (PPG in SHL) - Balcers (NHL)
Daugavins (ex-NHL, 0.75 PPG in KHL) - Girgensons (NHL) - Karsums (ex-NHL)
Bukarts (PPG in Czech Extraliga) - Tralmaks (AHL) - Dzierkals (0.5 PPG in KHL)

The forward corps actually looks pretty similar to Denmark. Weaker top 6, slightly better bottom 6.

Same with defencemen. Our 4th and 5th pairing would consist of AHLers/KHLers, which is not very impressive, but we simply have a little more depth at every position.

And since more often than not every national team has issues with snubs and injuries, it usually translates into a pretty major advantage. The more of your best players are not there, the weaker your 4th liners, 3rd pairing Ds. Denmark often has to call up players from their domestic league, which is not even a fully professional league, or the Swedish 2nd division, etc.

You could argue that Latvia and Denmark form a mini-tier of their own and are similar in strength, but you can't really argue for Denmark being better unless you're a North American who's only aware of current leading NHL players.

I also think Latvia looks slightly better than both Denmark and Slovakia. But i'm not overly focused on depth. I think core are more important. Depth has to be good enough to not blow it. But the core 7 players has to be strong and win the game for the team.
My core consists of 7 players and my depth of the rest 13 players.

By core I mean
1. One center in 1st line (1 player)
2. Wingman for the center in the 1st line. (1 player)
3. One defenceman and his pairing. (2 players)
4. A 2nd center in the 2nd line (1 player)
5. A wingman for the 2nd center(1 player)
6. A good goalkeeper (1 player)

Those seven players will make up my core and win the game. The 13 rest make up the depth and their objective is to not blow it.
These 7 players will win the game for me. The 13 rest only have to be good enough to not blow it, not elite players but good enough to keep the team afloat when those 7 aren't on the ice.