NHL World Cup of Hockey: Proposed Alternate European Teams
By Ryan Ritchie
NHL Hockey World Cup: Introducing Alternate European Teams (KHL/Rest of Europe)
NHL World Cup of Hockey officially kicks off in two weeks, with the pre-tournament scheduled starting on September 8th at various venues around North America.
Former NHLer David Booth tweeted out on Thursday, “Hey World Cup of Hockey – is it too late to add an All Buyout Team? Thescore.com’s Ian McLaren not only got to thinking, but did the work on what a possible team could look like (check it out here).
It was all in good fun seeing as the NHL plans to scrap the North American and European entries in 2020 (reportedly) – Gary Bettman would prefer a qualifying tournament for smaller nations.
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The option still remains for the league to get creative, further experimenting with different types of entries. It got us to thinking, we wanted to know what a couple of teams in particular might look like.
What if the NHL World Cup of Hockey featured two squads of former NHL talent? The first one would consist of players strictly in the KHL, while the other one would be a combination of other European leagues.
We don’t expect that either team would be able to compete with the projected bottom feeders (Team Europe and Czech Republic) at the WCOH, but we were simply curious what an All-Star team of former NHL talent might look like.
NHL World Cup of Hockey: The Alternates (KHL and Europe)
KHL (Former NHL Talent)
Goalies:
Viktor Fasth, CSKA Moskva
Barry Brust, HC Slovan Bratislava
Riku Helenius, Jokerit
Surely this goaltending would hold up better than the buy-out squad of two retired netminders (Johan Hedberg and Rick Dipietro) that would be solely relying on Ilya Bryzgalov.
Fasth would be our starter. He had solid success with Anaheim before crumbling with a lousy Oilers squad.
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Defense:
Cam Barker, Barys Astana
Jonathon Blum, Admiral Vladivostok
Matt Gilroy, Spartak Moskva
Andrej Meszaros, HC Slovan Bratislava
Dmitri Kalinin, Spartak Moskva
Brett Bellemore, Kunlun Red Star
Shaone Morrisonn, Medvescak Zagreb
Barker and Blum fell short of high expectations in the NHL and eventually wound up in Russia. The pair have had a lot of success in the KHL and would drive the offense for our team.
We were surprised to see that both Dmitri Kalinin and Shaone Morrisonn were not only still playing, but competing at a high-level to this day – hence the inclusion.
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Forwards:
Ilya Kovalchuk, Ska St.Petersburg
Brandon Bochenski, Barys Astana
Linus Omark, Salavat Yulaev Ufa
Nigel Dawes, Barys Astana
Brandon Kozun, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
Peter Regin, Jokerit
Wojtek Wolski, Metallurg Magnitogorsk
Andrei Kostitsyn, HK Sochi
Jonathan Cheechoo, HC Slovan Bratislava
Maxim Afinogenov, Vityaz Podolsk
Jiri Sekac, AK Bars Kazan
Max Talbot, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
Derek Roy, Avangard Omsk
A lot of familiar names here, but we’d like to point out one in particular. We haven’t seen Maxim Afinogenov’s name since his 61-point final NHL season with Atlanta back in 2009-10. Now seven seasons later, the speedy Russian is still producing at 36-years-old.
It may not be the prettiest team in the world, but certainly it could challenge Ian McLaren’s All-Buyout team, no?
Rest of Europe (Former NHL Talent)
Goalies:
Jonas Hiller, EHC Biel-Bienne (NLA)
Cristobal Huet, Lausanne HC (NLA)
Jussi Markkanen, SaiPa (SM-Liiga)
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Hiller had a rough 2015-16 season which abruptly ended his NHL career. Up until last season, Jonas was a decent netminder who had won 25 or more games in a single year on five separate occasions.
Huet went 26-14-4 with a 2.50GAA and .895 save percentage in his final year with Chicago back in 2009-10. He has since spent the past six seasons playing in Switzerland (NLA).
If France finds a way to qualify for the Olympics, it will be largely on the shoulders of Cristobal Huet. He continues to keep his nation competitive on the international stage for more than two decades now (if you count his junior years in the early to mid 1990s).
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Defense:
Mike Lundin, EHC Biel-Bienne (NLA)
Branislav Mezei, HK Nitra (Slovakia)
David Rundblad, ZSC Lions (NLA)
Alexandre Picard, HC Fribourg-Gotteron (NLA)
Ric Jackman, Fife (EIHL)
Henrik Tallinder, TPS (SM-Liiga)
Brendan Mikkelson, Lulea HF (SHL)
Admittedly a major weakness for this team is the blue line. It doesn’t possess the type of offensive-minded defenders that would lead our KHL team, but instead a mix of two-way/defensive minded players.
We found it interesting that Branislav Mezei was still playing. Selected 10th overall by New York in 1999, Mezei was forced into the Islanders lineup as a teenager and asked to do too much. When he failed to deliver, he was shipped to Florida and spent five seasons there before fleeing to Europe in 2008-09.
Forwards:
Martin Erat, HC Kometa Brno (Czech)Roman Cervenka, HC Fribourg-Gotteron (NLA)
Rostislav Olesz, HC Vitkovice (Czech)
Marcel Hossa, HK Dukla Trencin (Slovakia)
Jozef Stumpel, HK 32 Liptovsky Mukulas (Slovakia)
Nick Spaling, Geneve-Servette (NLA)
Mike Santorelli, Geneve-Servette (NLA)
Kris Versteeg, Bern (NLA)
Matt D’Agostini, Geneve-Servette (NLA)
Mark Arcobello, SC Bern (NLA)
Jim Slater, Geneve-Servette (NLA)
Adam Hall, HC Ambri-Piotta (NLA)
Steven Reinprecht, Nurnberg Ice Tigers (NLA)
Replacement: Andrew Gordon, Linkoping (SHL)
Players such as Adam Hall, Rostislav Olesz, Martin Erat, Nick Spaling, Mike Santorelli, Kris Versteeg, Matt D’Agostini, Mark Arcobello, and Jim Slater are all recently removed from the NHL in recent years. We filled out our remaining forwards with players of intrigue.
Seems the Czech Republic has stolen one of our players in the last 12 hours or so. Cervenka is set to replace the injured David Krejci – not surprising, it all honesty, Roman should have been named to the team in the first place.
We included the names of Marcel Hossa, Jozef Stumpel, and Steven Reinprecht simply for the fact that we were impressed that all three continue to play at a high level, even if their NHL careers are long over. The last time we saw Marian Hossa‘s brother Marcel was in 2007-08, the same year Jozef Stumpel departed for Europe . Reinprecht last made an NHL appearance playing for Florida back in 2010-11.
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While both of these teams would have difficulty competing against current teams set to face-off in the World Cup of Hockey, we do wonder if either of these teams would be remotely competitive against Ian McLaren’s All-Buyout Team?
Let’s remember folks, this is all in good fun as fans and experts alike attempt to get creative in tweaking the current tournament format.