Here are my personal considerations for the roster:
- take guys that are in their prime over guys with experience
- don’t take guys that haven’t thrived in the NHL playoffs
- game breaking talent is required to break through hot goaltenders (ie don’t overthink it with role players)
- international rules won’t allow for as physical of a game as the NHL playoffs and it’s on small NHL ice so go with a speed focused fast transition team like the Avs, Canes, or VGK
- each line needs to have 2 guys that can take faceoffs, ideally one left and one right
- put defensively responsible players on each line so you can just roll 4 lines (ie don’t concentrate them all on a checking line)
- neither Mcdavid nor Mackinnon are great defensively or face off savants so they both need to have an elite defensive player on their lines
- always go LH/RH on D unless you have a guy who always plays his off hand
You ideally just want wave after wave of fast puck recovery in the dzone, lightning fast transition up the ice, tenacious forechecking on each line, and game breaking skill at all 5 positions to hem in opposing teams on every shift.
Of course you also need some guys for special situations - dzone faceoffs, PK, defending a lead, so you need multifunctional players.
With all that said, here we go:
F1: Barzal - Mcdavid - Stone
F2: O’reilly - Mackinnon - Point
F3: Marchand - Crosby - Bergeron
F4: Huberdeau - Couturier - Scheifele
Extras: Stamkos, Marner
D1: Theodore - Pietrangelo
D2: Nurse - Makar
D3: Chabot - Ekblad
D4: Chychrun - Parayko
F1: Barzal provides another high speed rush option with Mcdavid, and an RH for 1 timers on the left wall and for faceoffs. Stone provides elite defensive play and playmaking and doesn’t need to be the puck carrier to be effective.
F2: ROR and Mackinnon know each other well and are friends. ROR has played wing, takes LH faceoffs in both zones and takes defensive responsibilities as center. Mackinnon takes RH faceoffs in the ozone and Point takes RH faceoffs in the dzone. Point can skate with Mackinnon and is also defensively sound, elite offensively, good in big moments, and used to playing off of other play-driving players. Both ROR and Point can be effective without the puck but are also good enough offensively to create space and opportunities for Mackinnon.
F3: Vet line with proven chemistry, good balance of skating, IQ, playmaking, scoring, and defense.
F4: You’ve got an LH and RH center, balanced mix of offense, defense, skating, size and IQ. This line could pin opponents well on the cycle rather than relying on the rush like the top two lines.
Extras: You take Stamkos and Marner in case you need different looks to get the PP going despite Marner’s bad playoff record. He would have very little individual pressure on a team like this. There are enough guys who can PK amongst the forwards, and Marner can too if needed.
If you play a team that’s got a really hot, top heavy offensive threat, you mix it up and just roll O’reilly - Couturier - Stone out there for 20 minutes and completely suffocate them.
D1: Keep Theodore and Pietrangelo together for familiarity from playing together in Vegas. APie plays the role of 1D for this team and eats the most minutes.
D2: Makar can play with anyone and Nurse provides physicality and size to balance out Makar’s weakness. Both can play in all situations. Nurse familiar with Mcdavid and Makar with Mackinnon.
D3/D4: you can convince me either way with these four guys but they give you a good mix of skating, size, offense, defense and physicality. I’d really like to see Parayko on the team as a defensive rock and PK option but it’s hard to not run Ekblad as a regular either. You’ve got two promising and skilled workhorse top pairing LHDs on the left and I’d rather use them than play another RHD out of position.
D1-6 the way it’s written would be absolutely elite in transition. Weber is too old and too slow now. Doughty, I leave off unless he plays too well to ignore to start the next season.
Goalies, you have no choice but to roll Price and Fleury.
