Our glorious federation already posted the preliminary roster for the upcoming U18 WJC.
Underagers Daniil Ustinkov (who already has some NLA experience), Leon Muggli, Jamiro Reber and Christian Kirsch find themselves on the list. Since the 06 birth year is much stronger than the 05 class Gian Meier and Jordan Forget should probably have been selected as well. There isn't much of an excuse for favoring some of the weaker 05 forwards like Gioele Peddrazini over Forget. The former may have some slick hands and good vision but he is a Jeremy Jabola Prada type player that will struggle at the WJC level because of his size.
Besides that it was surprising that Leo Braillard only appears on the roster as a possible reinforcement that could be selected later "on demand". I don't know if some injury or him playing in Canada is factoring into this but it would be borderline criminal to leave him of the team, as he was our most dangerous forward in last years Ivan Hlinka memorial tournament. But with Marcel "Schöggi" Jenni as our coach all bets are of regarding roster selection anyways.
Kimo Grubers absence is a bit more understandable since he had a downright terrible year in the OHL with only 3 goals in over 40 games for Oshawa. I still think he could be a valuable asset to the team, especially on the power play. But its no secret that Jenni does not hold him in very high regard, as he already left him of the team in the aforementioned Hlinka memorial tournament. Besides that there are some other semi questionable selections that are not worth mentioning though, as they wouldn't have changed the teams overall quality in a meaningful way.
As far as the goalies are concerned, I am already looking forward to Hinterlands opinion on the matter
Underagers Daniil Ustinkov (who already has some NLA experience), Leon Muggli, Jamiro Reber and Christian Kirsch find themselves on the list. Since the 06 birth year is much stronger than the 05 class Gian Meier and Jordan Forget should probably have been selected as well. There isn't much of an excuse for favoring some of the weaker 05 forwards like Gioele Peddrazini over Forget. The former may have some slick hands and good vision but he is a Jeremy Jabola Prada type player that will struggle at the WJC level because of his size.
Besides that it was surprising that Leo Braillard only appears on the roster as a possible reinforcement that could be selected later "on demand". I don't know if some injury or him playing in Canada is factoring into this but it would be borderline criminal to leave him of the team, as he was our most dangerous forward in last years Ivan Hlinka memorial tournament. But with Marcel "Schöggi" Jenni as our coach all bets are of regarding roster selection anyways.
Kimo Grubers absence is a bit more understandable since he had a downright terrible year in the OHL with only 3 goals in over 40 games for Oshawa. I still think he could be a valuable asset to the team, especially on the power play. But its no secret that Jenni does not hold him in very high regard, as he already left him of the team in the aforementioned Hlinka memorial tournament. Besides that there are some other semi questionable selections that are not worth mentioning though, as they wouldn't have changed the teams overall quality in a meaningful way.
As far as the goalies are concerned, I am already looking forward to Hinterlands opinion on the matter
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