WC: How would Team Canada fare in the NHL?

[KrisLetAngry]

If Mike Smith can play just NHL calibre that forward group should be able to bail him out a lot of games. The defense is pretty strong. I think the team would be the favorite for many years.

 

[Jrtu]

I was looking through the roster of Team Canada, and was kind of curious how you think they would fare in the NHL if they were an NHL team? Would they make the playoffs? Even be a cup contender? What would their strengths and weaknesses be compared to other NHL teams? And as a reminder, below is a link to the current roster.

http://www.eliteprospects.com/team.php?team=1616

2003~2004 Colorado Avalanche comes to mind.

 

[30Yonge]

117 points and out in the first round

 

[swissexpert]

LOL at people saying their D is weak, they have easily 4-5 top pairing Dmen with at least one potential #1 next year.
Would compete for best D-core in the league pretty soon.
Forward group is out of competition, this team would be a dynasty, winning 4 cups in the next 5 years.

 

[systemsgo]

cup contender.

when ROR is on your 4th line, you know you're stacked. fast, and so much skill. any team that runs hall and eberle on the third pairing is going to run into issues. do you run your top shutdown guys against Sid? or giroux? or duchene? all 3 lines are capable of top line minute and top line scoring.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I'd say that this year's Tampa, Chicago, New York and Washington all could likely handle this Team Canada roster in a seven game series.

They have the speed to create a strong forecheck, plus the defense to match TC's offense.

Anaheim's 4th line + 3rd pairings vs Canada:


Etem-Thompson-Jackman
Stoner-Vatanen

vs

Hall-Duschesne-Eberle
Burns - Muzzin




Do you honestly think this is remotely close? Every 4th line from all of those teams you listed would get completely destroyed by the Team Canada depth. They would be extremely lucky not to bleed more than 2+ goals a game.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

They'd easily make the playoffs, but wouldn't go far with a sieve in net and guys like Seguin and Spezza

 

[Perfect_Drug]

They'd easily make the playoffs, but wouldn't go far with a sieve in net and guys like Seguin and Spezza

What's the problem?

Let RoR shut down the other teams Top line, and Giroux vs their 2nd line.


Crosby+Seguin lines get to dominate the other teams bottom lines.

 

[mariemarie]

Wins cup every year with that forward group

 

[varsaku]

I think they would win the cup every year. Especially with that top 9, you can just out score your opponents and win games regardless of how smith plays in net.

 

[ck26]

Surprised/not surprised at how much people are ****ting on Mike Smith in this thread. Really? What team in the current NHL has the juice to trade for these pieces?

Could the Stars? They already have Seguin, Spezza and Eakin. Jamie Benn isn't on the team but he would be.

Does packaging Val Nichushkin and a 2015 1st get you close to Hall? Maybe?

Does John Klingberg get you Dan Hamhuis?

Does the 2016 1st + 2017 1st + 2018 1st get you Giroux?

Does Julius Honka + 2015 2nd + 2016 2nd + 2017 2nd get you Ekblad?

And once all those trades are completed, what assets do the Stars have left to get Matt Duchene, Jordan Eberle, Ryan O'Reilly and, uhh, the best player in the world Crosby?

Team Canada is basically an all star team.

They would be a cup contender in the NHL.

... and it's nowhere near cap compliant. That Canada team would waltz through the playoffs in 18 games.

 

[Faterson]

the goalies are extremely weak.

Martin Jones is an "extremely weak" goaltender? That's news to me as an LA Kings fan. There are few goaltenders who have collected so many shutouts in such relatively brief careers. I don't think Quick had such a good start in the NHL, compared to Jones. You would have written Quick off as "extremely weak" in his first or second season, too? (To be sure, some fellow Kings fans were doing just that with Quick, even deep into the 2011/12 regular season – doubting he could ever deliver in the play-offs.)

 

[garbageteam]

What's the cap hit of this team? harder to work out with CapGeek gone. Easily playoff team and likely perennial cup contender imo.

 

[LTIR]

Lack grit ...
Almost lost to SWE team which was comparable to an AHL team.

Team Canada looks like the stacked version of future Edm Oilers.

Good looking forwards group on paper, no franchise Dman and suspect goaltending..

Fringe playoffs team if i gets placed in West.

 

[ChiHawk21]

can someone put the full roster on here?

nvrmind

hawks win 2 game in a playoff series

 

[Bolt32]

If the Lightning came out guns blazing, and really went after them hard. I could see them stretching the series to five games. Anything more would be pushing it. That offense would just demolish teams. They would easily be the best team offensively. Probably by a decent margin for GF between them and second place as well.

 

[Faterson]

no franchise Dman

Erm... Ekblad. This team would win the Cup in most seasons.

 

[CherryToke]

LOL at people saying their D is weak, they have easily 4-5 top pairing Dmen with at least one potential #1 next year.
Would compete for best D-core in the league pretty soon.
Forward group is out of competition, this team would be a dynasty, winning 4 cups in the next 5 years.

yeah, Ekblad and Muzzin are both #1's I think. this is not a weak defense at all.

 

[xxxx]

lol, can you imagine this team playing 82 games together?? There's some chemistry in Team Canada after 4 games, what would it be after 82 games?? Imagine Montreal is eliminated and Subban and Price join the team. That would literally be unbeatable dream team.

 

[Steven1562]

They wouldn't even need "elite" goaltending. That offense depth could probably score 4-5 a game easy. All the goalie has to do is make the saves that need to be made.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Cup pretender imho

That offence is amazing, the defence is well above average, but I can't see them winning anything with current edition of Smith in net...

I don't get how goaltending would prevent them from winning. Smith isn't bad. He's still a 1B at this point.

They would have the puck way too much for subpar goaltending to matter anyways.

 

[Pilky01]

Cup favourites. Trying to argue anything less is just a transparent attempt to look intelligent.

Could they use a more proven goalie? Sure...but that hasn't stopped Chicago from being a perennial Stanley Cup favourite.

 

[Paper]

Cup favourites. Trying to argue anything less is just a transparent attempt to look intelligent.

And coming off as anything but.

The same people arguing this team isn't a favourite would have to argue that the 2007-2008 Detroit Red Wings would be lucky to not get relegated to the AHL with Osgood in net.

 

[flamesforcup*]

I dont know where to post this but what do u guys think team USA's world championship roster will do in the nhl

 

[Faterson]

They'd likely be Edmonton II, though with much better defence than offence.