So if NHL players aren't going to the Olympics who's playing for Canada and the US?

[Rabid Ranger]

Thanks for the recap. I'll be very interested to see the makeup of the team. At least they are going the speed/skill approach. Could definitely see a guy like Matt Cullen play if he retires.

 

[Xokkeu]

Dunno where they are going to find this skill but speed is at least a smart play

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Dunno where they are going to find this skill but speed is at least a smart play

It's all relative given the competition.

 

[Xokkeu]

It's all relative given the competition.

Understandable but we don't exactly have guys destroying the KHL Swiss league etc

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Understandable but we don't exactly have guys destroying the KHL Swiss league etc

I don't know, there seems to be a good representation of American talent in the Euro leagues. Shoot, didn't Marc Arcobello lead the Swiss league in scoring last year?

 

[Xokkeu]

I don't know, there seems to be a good representation of American talent in the Euro leagues. Shoot, didn't Marc Arcobello lead the Swiss league in scoring last year?

Definitely won't pretend to be an expert on euro leagues. But I remember when researching the roster that we didn't have too many guys high up the charts in Russia or switzerland.

But yes Arcobello was the Swiss league leader 55 point in 50 games. Drew shore was 6th with 48 in 50.

Our old friend Ryan Lasch was 22nd. 38-46

Bobby Sanguinetti 55th, Rob Schremp 58th, Adam hall 87th

 

[4thline]

No it's not.

Genuinely interested in who else is "best on best" quality.

There's Mozyakin, Kovalchuk, Gusev? I'd say half is a huge chunk, and it's not like it's going to be some star studded A level squad.

Of the next 10 highest KHL scorers still eligible from last year there's
3 Canadians
2 Canadian born and trained Kahzak's
1 each -Czech, Swede, Russian, American, Dane

 

[tobu]

Because it's still the Slovakian team. Regardless of who plays for it

I can confirm. As a Slovak, I will cheer for the Slovak team regardless who plays for it and regardless of who plays for the opposing team.

Just a small technicality, it's Slovak and not Slovakian. Hopefully one more person saying it correctly.

 

[Xokkeu]

So the league officially confirmed that no minor league players with NHL contracts can go.

 

[DoyleG]

So the league officially confirmed that no minor league players with NHL contracts can go.

So, the NHL has gone full ******.

One should never go full ******.

 

[Leafsdude7]

So the league officially confirmed that no minor league players with NHL contracts can go.

I mean, players on the NHL roster at a certain cutoff date (Feb 1?), I understand, even if I don't like it, but players with NHL contracts not in the NHL on that date? I don't know why the NHL doesn't leave it up to the team for those guys like they do with U20s. I legitimately can't think of one good reason.

It'll be interesting to see if any players under contract to AHL teams will make it. Also wonder if any currently unsigned prospects/RFAs who are likely to play in the AHL most of the season might take a 1-year AHL contract this year for the chance at the Olympics (would that even be allowed?). Currently, names I'd think of like this would be:

Ty Wotherspoon
Frank Corrado
Tye McGinn
Anthony Duclair

Duclair would be an extreme example, as a lot of things would have to work perfectly for both player and team, since he's much more likely to play the whole 2017-18 season in the NHL than the others. All would also probably only sign if they can be invited to NHL camp and play preseason games with the possibility of signing for the season if they perform well enough. This happens in baseball all the time, but I don't think I can think of an example of a player signed to an AHL-affiliate who was invited to the NHL team's camp, so I'm not sure if it's something that can be done without resorting to PTOs.

Considering that Hockey Canada has insinuated that a large percentage of the roster is going to come from the two squads named for the summer tournaments they've been invited to (Sochi Open and Puchkov Tournament), here's my guess for their Olympic roster right now:

[table=head]L| C| R
Mason Raymond| Derek Roy| Devin Setoguchi
Wojtek Wolski| Gilbert Brule| Brandon Kozun
Daniel Paille| Eric O'Dell| Marc-Antoine Pouliot
Ryan Garbutt| Ben Maxwell| Max Talbot
| Brandon McMillan|
[/table]

[table=head]D| D
Carlo Colaiacovo| Cam Barker
Marc-Andre Gragnani| Jesse Blacker
Karl Stollery| Stefan Elliot
Chris Lee|
[/table]

[table=head]G
Ben Scrivens
Justin Peters
[/table]

There's also definitely UFAs for whom it wouldn't absurd if they signed overseas that would definitely get long looks for the roster, such as Michael Kostka, Jay McClement, Cody Goloubef, John Mitchell, Mark Fraser, Ryan White, Bobby Farnham, Tanner Glass, Chris Kelly, Boyd Gordon and Scottie Upshall. All of those names would at least be viewed equally to most players in the above rosters. There's also a few others (Nick Schultz, Vernon Fiddler, PA Parenteau, Teddy Purcell, Alex Chiasson, Dennis Wideman, Cody Franson and, of course, Shane Doan and Jerome Iginla) that will probably get NHL contracts or retire, but still have slim chances of signing in Europe next year and would probably all be locks for the team if they do.

With that in mind, I'd assume this is the best-case scenario for Canada:

[table=head]L| C| R
PA Parenteau| Derek Roy| Alex Chiasson
Mason Raymond| Gilbert Brule| Jerome Iginla
Daniel Paille| Chris Kelly| Shane Doan
Tanner Glass| Jay McClement| Max Talbot
| Vernon Fiddler|
[/table]

[table=head]D| D
Nick Schultz| Cody Franson
Carlo Colaiacovo| Dennis Wideman
Cam Barker| Cody Goloubef
| Michael Kostka
[/table]

[table=head]G
Ben Scrivens
Justin Peters
[/table]

Defense would see a huge improvement (3 of the top-4 are different, and only 2 of the 7 in the first projection remain), but not so much up front, though the bottom 6 does improve somewhat. I'd imagine most likely we'd see some combination of these two lineups in Pyongyang. Don't think there's any good potential options in goal outside of Scrivens and Peters anywhere.