NHL World Cup Predictions: Projecting Lines and Defensive Pairings for All 8 Teams at the WCOH
Next in our WCOH coverage, we’d like to present more NHL World Cup predictions. We began by projecting starting goalies last week, and today we turn our focus to offensive lines/defensive pairings.
Now, there’s obviously line shuffling expected to take place at the World Cup of Hockey, that’s just the nature of our sport. Because of that, the idea behind the following projected lines was to match players whose style of play suits one another. Some of these guys have had success together on the international stage, making certain line combinations easier than others.
For others such as Team Europe and North America, it’s more speculation than anything. For example, NA has upwards of eight to nine players capable of playing center. This is where coaching and management comes in; with so little time to prepare for these tournaments, finding the right chemistry can be a key factor to success.
NHL World Cup Predictions: Projecting Lines/Defensive Pairings for all 8 Teams
Canada
John Tavares – Sidney Crosby – Patrice Bergeron
Logan Couture – Jonathan Toews – Tyler Seguin
Joe Thornton – Matt Duchene – Steven Stamkos
Brad Marchand – Ryan Getzlaf – Corey Perry
13th: Claude Giroux
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Brent Burns
Drew Doughty – Jake Muzzin
Jay Bouwmeester – Alex Pietrangelo
7th: Shea Weber
Related Story: Top 20 Players Under 20 Years of Age
Team North America
Brandon Saad – Connor McDavid – Jack Eichel
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Couturier – Nathan MacKinnon
Jonathan Drouin – Dylan Larkin – Mark Scheifele
J.T. Miller – Auston Matthews – Vincent Trocheck
13th: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Shayne Gostisbehere – Aaron Ekblad
Morgan Rielly – Colton Parayko
Ryan Murray – Seth Jones
7th: Jacob Trouba
Related Story: 5 Teams Still Need a Captain
Team USA
Zach Parise – Ryan Kesler – Patrick Kane
James van Riemsdyk – Joe Pavelski – Blake Wheeler
Max Pacioretty – David Backes – T.J. Oshie
Brandon Dubinsky – Derek Stepan – Kyle Palmieri
13th: Justin Abdelkader
Ryan McDonagh – Dustin Byfuglien
Ryan Suter – John Carlson
Erik Johnson – Matt Niskanen
7th: Jack Johnson
Related Story: Story Lines That Impact Expansion Draft
Team Europe
Tomas Tatar – Anze Kopitar – Marian Gaborik
Mikkel Boedker – Frans Nielsen – Marian Hossa
Nino Niederreiter – Leon Draisaitl – Mats Zuccarello
Thomas Vanek – P.E. Bellemare – Jannik Hansen
13th: Tobias Rieder
Roman Josi – Zdeno Chara
Andrej Sekera – Mark Streit
Dennis Seidenberg – Luca Sbisa
7th: Christian Ehrhoff
Related Story: Seattle More Worthy of Franchise Than Las Vegas
Team Sweden
Filip Forsberg – Nicklas Backstrom – Patric Hornqvist
Daniel Sedin – Henrik Sedin – Loui Eriksson
Gabriel Landeskog – Carl Soderberg – Jakob Silfverberg
Carl Hagelin – Mikael Backlund – Rickard Rakell
13th: Marcus Kruger
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Erik Karlsson
Victor Hedman – Anton Stralman
Hampus Lindholm – Niklas Hjalmarsson
7th: Mattias Ekholm
Related Story: World Cup of Hockey Proposed Alternate Teams
Team Russia
Alex Ovechkin – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Vladimir Tarasenko
Nikita Kucherov – Pavel Datsyuk – Evgeni Malkin
Artemi Panarin – Artem Anisimov – Vadim Shipachyov
Vladislav Namestnikov – Ivan Telegin – Evgeny Dadonov
13th: Nikolay Kulemin
Andrei Markov – Dmitry Orlov
Dmitry Kulikov – Nikita Zaitsev
Alexei Emelin – Nikita Nesterov
7th: Alexey Marchenko
Team Czech Republic
Ondrej Palat – Tomas Plekanec – Jakub Voracek
Roman Cervenka – Martin Hanzal – David Pastrnak
Dmitrij Jaskin – Radek Faksa – Ales Hemsky
Milan Michalek – Vladimir Sobotka – Michael Frolik
13th: Michal Birner
Michal Kempny – Andrej Sustr
Michal Jordan – Roman Polak
Jakub Nakladal – Zbynek Michalek
7th: Tomas Kundratek
Next: Inside Look at Team North America
Team Finland
Jussi Jokinen – Aleksander Barkov – Joonas Donskoi
Mikael Granlund – Mikko Koivu – Leo Komarov
Sebastian Aho – Valtteri Filppula – Patrik Laine
Teuvo Teravainen – Jori Lehtera – Erik Haula
13th: Lauri Korpikoski
Olli Maatta – Rasmus Ristolainen
Jyrki Jokipakka – Sami Vatanen
Esa Lindell – Ville Pokka
7th: Sami Lepisto