Blogs and Other Things

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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!