What-if players for olympics

[Exarz]

It is the same for soccer too and should be for hockey too.

Why?

 

[GotTheMovesLikeJagr]

It is independence day here in Finland. What if Soviets had rolled over Finland in winter war? Team Russia would look like this then. NOTE: Sweden would also be gone as they wouldn't have been able to stand against Russia with their bad army(FIN saved them).

Panarin-Barkov-Kucherov
Oveckhin-Aho-Rantanen
Kaprizov-Malkin-Svechnikov
Landeskog-Hintz-Kuznetsov

Pettersson, Bäckström,Teräväinen, Ziba, ..

Heiskanen-Klingberg
Hedman-Sergachev
Ekholm-Provorov

Vasilevskiy, Shesterkin, Markström

Canada-killer. But I'm thankful that instead of this we are gonna kick Russia's ass once again in Peking

Wouldn't Finland have become independent like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan etc. with the breakup of the Soviet Union, though?

 

[jj cale]

McDavid and MacKinnon on team Ireland

Mackinnon is Scottish though, team Ireland's centre depth just took a big hit.

 

[Pasha71]

I suppose we could fantasize about Team Russian Empire (Russia + Latvia + Belarus + Finland), Team British Empire (Canada + USA), Team French Empire (Quebec + France), Team Swedish Empire (Sweden + Finland + Norway + Denmark)...

 

[Weztex]

I suppose we could fantasize about Team Russian Empire (Russia + Latvia + Belarus + Finland), Team British Empire (Canada + USA), Team French Empire (Quebec + France), Team Swedish Empire (Sweden + Finland + Norway + Denmark)...

Team French empire could claim almost every player from Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois and half of the Central time zone. Nightmare incoming for the IOC.

 

[Fjorden]

Seeing the olympics coming up, what players with ties or ethnicity but wrong nationality would be great fit in their national teams? What players would you fit a team without any ties?

Ie. Aleksander Barkov has russian parents and he would be perfect for Russia. Matt Niskanen has finnish roots and if he didn't retire he would be great dman for Finland. Finland would love to get some more quality defensemen and someone like Ryan Suter would be a great fit.

Norway could find a lot of players in the state of hockey in Minnesota where most norwegians settled, and also Chicago being the city with most norwegians outside Norway.

Brady Skei in Carolina Hurricanes has a norwegian great grandpa.
Dustin Byfuglien x winnipeg and Chicago also has norwegian background.
Riley Tufte Dallas stars norwegian background.

Ryan Johansen in Nashville predators has norwegian background.
Nick Bjugstad Minnesota Wild has norwegian roots.
Eric Gudbranson Calgary Flames has norwegian roots.

The three Staal brothers are also listed on wikipedia as norwegian-canadian, but also as dutch so not 100% sure.

Jordan Staal Carlolina Hurricanes.
Eric Staal Montreal Canadiens.
Marc Staal Detroit Red Wings.

Dylan Strome Chicago Blackhawks.
Ryan Strome New york Rangers

So 11 NHL'ers. Could have been a decent team.

source: (norwegian historian)
Dag Trygsland Hoelseth: Norskættede ishockeyspillere i NHL (ice hockey players of Norwegian descent in the NHL)

 

[johnsic]

Why?

More NHL players in the olympics and higher quality games.

 

[johnsic]

It is independence day here in Finland. What if Soviets had rolled over Finland in winter war? Team Russia would look like this then. NOTE: Sweden would also be gone as they wouldn't have been able to stand against Russia with their bad army(FIN saved them).

Panarin-Barkov-Kucherov
Oveckhin-Aho-Rantanen
Kaprizov-Malkin-Svechnikov
Landeskog-Hintz-Kuznetsov

Pettersson, Bäckström,Teräväinen, Ziba, ..

Heiskanen-Klingberg
Hedman-Sergachev
Ekholm-Provorov

Vasilevskiy, Shesterkin, Markström

Canada-killer. But I'm thankful that instead of this we are gonna kick Russia's ass once again in Peking

It should be illegal to post something like this on a independence day.

 

[Exarz]

More NHL players in the olympics and higher quality games.

How would it lead to more NHL players in the Olympics? Based on the current NHL rosters, the players down below are the only dual-citizens that could actually represent another nation with FIFA eligibility rules and either a) their nation is not in the Olympics or b) they would barely crack a roster spot. The only thing this would do is to is to inflate lower-ranked nations with heritage players that won't bring any advantages to domestic hockey development.

Russia:
Boris Katchouk at eliteprospects.com
Alex Galchenyuk at eliteprospects.com (if he would've chosen Russia before representing the US in 2013)

Australia:
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/144069/ben-harpur

Great Britain:
Nic Dowd at eliteprospects.com
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/186992/brendan-perlini

The Netherlands:
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/231299/daniel-sprong

Sweden:
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/241370/oliver-wahlstrom

France:
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/335689/benoit-olivier-groulx

 

[BMann]

How would it lead to more NHL players in the Olympics? Based on the current NHL rosters, the players down below are the only dual-citizens that could actually represent another nation with FIFA eligibility rules and either a) their nation is not in the Olympics or b) they would barely crack a roster spot. The only thing this would do is to is to inflate lower-ranked nations with heritage players that won't bring any advantages to domestic hockey development.

Russia:
Boris Katchouk at eliteprospects.com
Alex Galchenyuk at eliteprospects.com (if he would've chosen Russia before representing the US in 2013)

Australia:
Ben Harpur at eliteprospects.com

Great Britain:
Nic Dowd at eliteprospects.com
Brendan Perlini at eliteprospects.com

The Netherlands:
Daniel Sprong at eliteprospects.com

Sweden:
https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/241370/oliver-wahlstrom

France:
Benoit-Olivier Groulx at eliteprospects.com

Groulx could still in time turn out for France assuming he fails the grade in the NHL and goes to the Magnus Ligue. Sprong is holding out for Canada. And Holland are down the pyramid by a long way. Bit of an oddity considering their love of speed skating and in the past plenty of frozen polders and lakes to play on. Given the Dutch diaspora in Canada there are plenty of players with Dutch heritage.

 

[Puckluck]

Connor McDaviddssön

Connor McDavinen or Connor McDavilainen.