There are a bunch of head scratchers in the taxi squad, but I guess it relates more to better players not wanting to isolate themselves in a hotel room for weeks just in case someone gets infected or injured. And that's probably a part of the reason why it contains some C team players. Or at least that would make sense.
Overall, a couple of snubs, a couple of questionable choices, but it really is true that 90% of the players simply are the best ones available.
It's going to be interesting to see whether they use Indrasis or Daugavins as 2C, as we're clearly lacking C depth without Blueger and Girgensons. Wingers are very solid. D is mediocre, but at least we do have a couple of decent puck moving defencemen, so our PP should be pretty good. The goalies were supposed to be our strong suit, but with Kalnins having a very unlucky year with Vaxjo and Punnenovs getting a minor injury just the other night, it's a bit of a question mark, but we're still pretty solid there as well.
So overall a decent team, and if we can avoid any further injuries, I can easily see this team getting points off of Sweden and even Finland. And the game against Slovakia is pretty much a coin toss.
I'd say we can definitely make the quarters. And if we get someone like the US or Canada or some other middling team in the QFs, we can definitely make the semis as well.
I'm going to be humble and say that bronze would work for me.
