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The IIHF World Championship is a hockey tournament that runs every May, where players from non-playoff NHL teams and international leagues compete for their country over a span of two weeks.
That said, it’s often the case that players elect not to play in the tournament, given their season just ended.
So I figured I’d do an experiment.
What would Canada (ideally) look like if every eligible Canadian player elected to play in this year’s tournament?
*Note, every team is allowed 22 skaters and 3 goalies.
Here’s my take.
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Forward Line 1 – Travis Konecny / Sidney Crosby / Dylan Guenther
Forward Line 2 – Adam Fantilli / Mathew Barzal / Jonathan Marchessault
Forward Line 3 – Macklin Celebrini / Sean Monahan / Jared McCann
Forward Line 4 – Jonathan Huberdeau / Nazem Kadri / Connor Bedard
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Defence Pair 1 – Vince Dunn / Mackenzie Weegar
Defence Pair 2 – Adam Pelech / Noah Dobson
Defence Pair 3 – Travis Sanheim / Bowen Byram
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Goaltenders
Joey Daccord* / Cam Talbot / Jet Greaves
*assuming Daccord elects to play for Canada over the USA
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Extras (4)
Owen Power, Kent Johnson, Zayne Parekh, Ryan O’Reilly
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Power Play (Unit 1)
Guenther – Crosby – Konecny
Dunn – Barzal
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Power Play (Unit 2)
Fantilli – Monahan – McCann
Celebrini – Dobson
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Penalty Kill (Unit 1)
Fantilli – Konecny
Sanheim – Weegar
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Penalty Kill (Unit 2)
Crosby – Celebrini
Pelech – Dobson
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Full Roster
Konecny – Crosby – Guenther
Fantilli – Barzal – Marchessault
McCann – Monahan – Celebrini
Huberdeau – Kadri – Bedard
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Dunn – Weegar
Pelech – Dobson
Sanheim – Byram
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Daccord, Talbot, Greaves
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This team could absolutely win the tournament, but it would ultimately come down to goaltending, which, as you can see, is the team’s weakest position (by a wide margin).
I’ll conclude by saying I’m really glad the Blues made the playoffs so that I don’t have to explain why Parayko would have been omitted (because he absolutely would have been).
Want to see this for other countries? Let me know!
Cheers to spring hockey!
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