World Junior Team That Produced The Most NHLers?

[Voight]

Was thinking about this the other day - I always wondered which World Junior squad ended up with the most NHL players. Any nationality.

Canada 2005 is a big one obviously. 11 current NHL players with guys like Stewart and Fraser who stuck around for a couple season.

Canada 2015 is also pretty notable, by my count they have something like 12 NHL players which is impressive given it was only 4 years ago.

The 2009 Canadian team fared okay. 5 of the defensemen are currently in the NHL, with Subban winning a Norris and Pietrangelo having a couple top 5 finishes. Only five forwards have stuck in the NHL - Tavares, Benn, Kane, Ennis, Eberle.

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[Nick Hansen]

Sweden 2012: A. Forsberg (goalie who played 35 games last year for the Hawks, now in the AHL) - Klingberg, Brodin, Nemeth, Klefbom, Claesson (Granberg played like 40 NHL games but is back in Sweden again) - F. Forsberg, J. Larsson, Rakell, Zibanejad, Rask, Nordström, W. Karlsson

11 players that are regulars as of now (not sure about Claesson - is he in and out? if a regular then 12).

 

[JackSlater]

I have to think that in the early days (at least after Canada started sending an all star team) that most Canadian players would at least get a shot at the NHL. I only looked at the 1982 Canadian team and all 20 of the players went on to play in the NHL for at least a cup of coffee.

 

[Big Phil]

Every single player on the 2002 Canadian World Junior team played in the NHL, even their back up goalie, Olivier Michaud for one game. Lost gold by blowing two goal leads twice though, but still a pretty stacked roster.

The 2005 team had all but two players that played at least a cup of coffee in the NHL. But they probably have the best set of stars on any roster all-time.

 

[golfortennis]

Every single player on the 2002 Canadian World Junior team played in the NHL, even their back up goalie, Olivier Michaud for one game. Lost gold by blowing two goal leads twice though, but still a pretty stacked roster.

The 2005 team had all but two players that played at least a cup of coffee in the NHL. But they probably have the best set of stars on any roster all-time.

The 2005 team had at least one *current* NHL player(Bergeron), who never sets foot in ND without a lockout.

 

[VanIslander]

The 1989 gold medal Soviet team had:

Bure
Fedorov
Mogilny
Zubov
Yushkevich
Khristich
Tsyplakov

I dunno which Soviet team had the most NHLers, but this one had two HHOFers, three if Mogilny eventually gets inducted, a premier offensive defenseman and an underrated great defensive defenseman.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

The 2005 team had at least one *current* NHL player(Bergeron), who never sets foot in ND without a lockout.

man, that team. eric staal couldn't make that team right?

 

[JackSlater]

man, that team. eric staal couldn't make that team right?

He was too old. Mike Green is probably the cut that went on to have the biggest name. Even in a lockout year the team could have been stronger however as Burns and Horton missed the team due to their NHL teams keeping them out of the tournament.

 

[seventieslord]

He was too old. Mike Green is probably the cut that went on to have the biggest name. Even in a lockout year the team could have been stronger however as Burns and Horton missed the team due to their NHL teams keeping them out of the tournament.

Staal was a 2003 draft pick. He would have been in his last year of eligibility, just like Bergeron.

 

[Michael Farkas]

Staal is an '84, not eligible for 2005 tournament (1/1/1985 cut off). Bergeron is an '85.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i've followed this tournament since tsn in canada made it a thing, though i haven't really followed it super closely since the 90s. such an interesting tournament-- i'd like to think i got good at figuring out who would pan out and who wouldn't.

(1) you have the obvious future superstars: lindros, bure, crosby, iginla, forsberg, tavares

(2) your "whoa, what is this guy?" players: young tiny kariya was one, marc-andre fleury, i remember one year alex pietrangelo and john carlson just totally jumped out of the screen at me, and he didn't scream future star but jeff friesen's speed as the youngest guy on the 1994 team was unreal

(3) your future role player playing an inflated role as a draft+1: those were usually the most lovable guys, because it was the end of their junior careers and you got the sense this could be the highlight of their careers, at 19: brooks laich and manny legace come to mind

(4) then there's also the lovable tiny skill guy that you know will be a career minor leaguer/european league guy: yannick dube, martin gendron, hnat dominichelli

(5) guys who maybe took a little longer but i knew they would make it because i saw something special in them at the wjc: alyn mccauley, jose theodore, and okay i didn't know ryan kesler would score 40 goals but i also knew he wouldn't be a career 15 goal bottom six center like most people thought he was early on

but sometimes i've been dead wrong--

(6) some sparkplug guys i thought would be remembered as wjc legends but never make it in the NHL: jordin tootoo and pk subban. i don't remember brad marchand and i don't think i watched the year he was one of the main guys, but i'm guessing he was one too?

(7) tiny guys i thought would be career minor leaguers who actually made it as point/game NHLers: jordan eberle, mike cammalleri, derek roy

(8) guys i thought would totally be at least good NHLers: jared aulin is the big one, aaron gavey is another, and like everyone else i was fooled by jeff glass

still my favourite wjc team, which had all of the above as well as probably being the correct answer to this thread--

1995 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships

• Head coach: Don Hay (coached in phoenix and calgary)

Goaltender

• Dan Cloutier
• Jamie Storr

Defence

• Chad Allen (only guy to not make the NHL at all-- a canucks 3rd round bust, but surprisingly a semi-rare bad pick in a very good draft for them: ohlund in the first round, dave scatchard in the second, bill muckalt in the 9th, tyson nash in the 10th, plus a flyer on one of my favourite wjc guys ever, yannick dube, in the 5th round)
• Nolan Baumgartner (bomber had a 15 year career mostly in the minors, where he never played more than 14 NHL games, except one full year with the canucks which he parlayed into a $2.4 million contract with the flyers; longtime captain of our farm team, later assistant coach of our farm, now assistant coach of the canucks, probably a future head coach here)
• Ed Jovanovski
• Bryan McCabe (category 2: man he was so good, what everyone thought phaneuf was around 12 years ago, i thought mccabe was in '95; tbf i don't think i noticed him the previous year, but then i'm not sure he really played much)
• Wade Redden
• Jamie Rivers (category 8: just looked it up, he actually played 454 games, which is very surprising; remember him as a young guy with the blues, i used to say he was better than wade redden)
• Lee Sorochan (no memory of this guy, but three games with the flames over two seasons)

Forward

• Jason Allison (category 1 and 5: knew he would be a top ten scorer one day)
• Jason Botterill (big draft bust during the size queen era-turned-management hotshot, current sabres GM, played 88 games in the league)
• Larry Courville (another canucks 3rd round bust, used to get him mixed up with lonny bohonos, 33 games)
• Alexandre Daigle (i'm not saying i knew he would bust, but ftr he did not impress me)
• Éric Dazé
• Shean Donovan
• Jeff Friesen
• Todd Harvey (category 3: though i thought he would be what mike richards became before it all went to hell for him)
• Marty Murray (category 4: but did manage to play three full seasons before the 2005 lockout)
• Jeff O'Neill (noted jagoff)
• Denis Pederson (canuck #7 on this team, traded for mogilny)
• Ryan Smyth
• Darcy Tucker (category 6: didn't think he had the size to play like that in the NHL without someone decapitating him)

 

[JackSlater]

Staal was a 2003 draft pick. He would have been in his last year of eligibility, just like Bergeron.

Eligibility is tied to birth year, not draft year.

 

[seventieslord]

Eligibility is tied to birth year, not draft year.

....how is this the first time I'm finding out that not all players in their draft+2 year are eligible for the WJC?

 

[Michael Farkas]

You study history and this tournament is about the future, maaaannnnnnnn...

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

today i learned that eric staal was just barely old young to not qualify for the 2002 draft. he was basically the same as the NCAA players (kesler/parise) before they changed the NCAA eligibility rules.

was staal cut from the 2004 team? i vaguely remember a story about him being a late cut, but maybe i'm confusing it with him almost making the 2006 olympic team?

 

[JackSlater]

today i learned that eric staal was just barely old young to not qualify for the 2002 draft. he was basically the same as the NCAA players (kesler/parise) before they changed the NCAA eligibility rules.

was staal cut from the 2004 team? i vaguely remember a story about him being a late cut, but maybe i'm confusing it with him almost making the 2006 olympic team?

He was in the NHL in 2004. I think that he was a late-ish cut in 2003.

 

[Big Phil]

The 2005 team had at least one *current* NHL player(Bergeron), who never sets foot in ND without a lockout.

Probably more. Phaneuf, Carter, Getzlaf and maybe even Perry all had a good shot at being in the NHL then. Either way, the 2005 was the climax of that strong 2003 draft. We saw this in the 2010 and 2014 Olympic teams as well.

 

[golfortennis]

today i learned that eric staal was just barely old young to not qualify for the 2002 draft. he was basically the same as the NCAA players (kesler/parise) before they changed the NCAA eligibility rules.

was staal cut from the 2004 team? i vaguely remember a story about him being a late cut, but maybe i'm confusing it with him almost making the 2006 olympic team?

It's the BS Sept. 15 rule. It;s why Tavares(DOB 9/20/90) had to wait until 09 draft, when he quite likely would have been taken before Stamkos.