Team Russia right now

[Eye of Ra]

What would strongest possible team Russia look like right now?

I would go with:

Ovechkin - Kuznetsov - Radulov
Panarin - Malkin - Kucherov
Dadonov - Anisimov - Tarasenko
Gusev - Shipachyov - Kaprizov

Provorov - Sergechev
Orlov - Zaitsev
Kulikov - Zadorov

Bobrovski
Vasilevsky

Click to read more...

 

[MaxV]

Kiselevich and Voynov (if he is in playing shape) on D. Chudinov and/or Gavrikov maybe also.

Kovy and Dats can still get it done, I would have them in there.

In reality it would probably be Telegin and Andronov.

 

[Eye of Ra]

In reality it would probably be Telegin and Andronov.

but znarok is gone?

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Russia's defense looks a lot better now than it did a couple of years ago.

Datsyuk is Russia's third best center. Move Anisimov down to the fourth line, and take Shipachyov out of the team.

I think Buch is better than Kaprizov pretty easily at this point. Despite the noise and now the injury, he's had a very productive start to the season, and has improved his production each season. He might even be better than Dadonov, but he's not afforded the minutes that Dadonov is. Hard to know how Gusev compares to all these players playing in the NHL. Kovalchuk is another option for the bottom six.

I'd take Vasilevskiy over Bobrovsky, although its close.

 

[Atas2000]

Russia's defense looks a lot better now than it did a couple of years ago.

Datsyuk is Russia's third best center. Move Anisimov down to the fourth line, and take Shipachyov out of the team.

I think Buch is better than Kaprizov pretty easily at this point. Despite the noise and now the injury, he's had a very productive start to the season, and has improved his production each season. He might even be better than Dadonov, but he's not afforded the minutes that Dadonov is. Hard to know how Gusev compares to all these players playing in the NHL. Kovalchuk is another option for the bottom six.

I'd take Vasilevskiy over Bobrovsky, although its close.

With all due respect to your bias

Kaprizov is a better player than Buch already and is going to grow yet. That's not a knock on Buch, that's a compliment towards Kaprizov's talent.

Russia is loaded on the RW, but the one and only Kucherov aside Kaprizov is on par with anybody. It is probably more a question of chemistry and line combos and line assignments though if we are talking about a real game day lineup. Buchnevich and Kaprizov are for example fairly different players who would fit in best with different linemates naturally.

I think Kaprizov is more of a Malkin or Datsyuk kind of RW, while Buch would look good with Kuznetsov.

The idea of moving Dadonov to LW derives from that logjam on RW. I would certainly do that. So Dadonov is not really competing away RW spots.

Your center depth chart is adequate, but Datsyuk will hang them up any day now. Other than that my drpth charts are as follows(with current trends based basically on this season's performance):

LW
Ovechkin=
Panarin= Gusev^

Dadonov^ Kovalchuk=

RW
Kucherov=

Kaprizov^ Tarasenko⬇ Radulov=
Buchnevich=
Svechnikov^

C
Malkin=
Kuznetsov^
Datsyuk⬇

Anisimov=

Good to see only two forwards trending down and with Dats the reason is pretty obvious.

 

[MaxV]

I have a feeling Russian coaches value Namestnikov more then fans.

He is versatile, can kill penalties well and has shown in the past that he can be a very good complimentary player on a line with top scorers.