I don't have a lot of respect for Deadmarsh's decisions, for the reasons you listed. Pominville is very similar to Deadmarsh, as he was only eligible to play for USA because of his mother's citizenship. He was so far removed from USA that he wasn't even aware that he was eligible until he was in his 20s. This guys are pure mercenaries, but Hull is somewhat different as he actually did live in USA for years growing up. I do think that Deadmarsh would have made team Canada at the 1995 WJC, where somewhat coincidentally he was the highest scoring player that wasn't on team Canada. As for Hull and his career, he himself said that he gained a lot of confidence from that USA selection and called it almost a turning point in his career. He probably still ends up great if he waits for Canada (and Canada almost certainly does win the 1996 World Cup) but who knows.
Others I didn't care for, and yeah even some Canadian ones:
Trottier on Team USA in 1984. Born and raised in Canada, PLAYED for Canada three years earlier. Decides to play on team USA in a country he hadn't even lived in for a decade yet.
Tony Esposito in 1981. Same reasons. They got dual citizenship by playing on an American team. But you learned the game - and all the money that came with it - in Canada. Plus Esposito played for Canada as well.
Petr Nedved on the 1994 Olympics. He had to have barely gotten his Canadian citizenship by then. But again, why? If he was drafted by Pittsburgh and not Vancouver then he'd have applied for American citizenship. He's a Czech, play for them.
Olaf Kolzig. He might be known for being born in South Africa but he was raised in Canada. Was it something along the lines of Robyn Regehr (born in Brazil because his father was a missionary but raised in Canada) because he was Canadian tried and true. But he plays in Germany? Again this was based on his mother's citizenship or something like that? I get it, Kolzig knows he probably isn't cracking Canada, but so what?
Jason Pominville.............for the reasons you mentioned. Another Deadmarsh. Never good enough to play for Canada anyway, but the guy still left a bad taste in your mouth.