OC --
1) Sauer is just straight up more talented and a better hockey player than either Lawson or McBain. He can do it on both ends of the ice and is constantly considered one of the best d-men out of the WHL right now. He's flown under the radar a bit because of a nagging injury problem his draft year and would've probably been a top 20 pick otherwise.
The kid is all that and a bag of chips.
And this isn't even including my bewilderment at the chosing of Zimmerman (whom I like as a prospect for the pros but highly doubt will do much of anything at this stage) over Sauer, either.
Summers I would've liked due to his versatality. He can play, litterally, any position on the ice outside of goaltender. And he's EXCELLED as both a forward and a defenseman. He'd be a much better option as a checking line center than the guys that were picked in his place and he could've been great on the defense also. While he hasn't set the world on fire (and, in my opinion, McBain has been OK but not as great as others have made him sound here), he is certainly one of the steadiest guys around. His versatality alone make him a valueable asset, as does his mean streak and leadership abilities. Color me EXTREMELY suprised that he was left off, as I thought he would be an ABSOLUTE LOCK to make the team.
2) I don't have any problems with Sweatt being selected. At all. Though I do have problems with Fraser, Carman, and Abdelkader being taken over Ryan. One of those guys could've been dropped for a player with the substantial amount of offense that Ryan brings to the table. I think that come tourny time, our squad is really going to miss his skill on the ice. We have a nice little group of fast, hustling bodies but not that many are going to score against the world's best.
We have to REALLY hope that Kane and JVR can step up to the challange as we can't solely rely on Mueller and Okposo to provide our offense. Ryan's skating isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be and if you pair him with two faster players you'd have no problems at all (and our team is full of fast players).
IMO Foligno brings offense to his checking game. More-so than any of the lower line players we picked. He's also quite feisty (and I think that that might've been the reason he was left off as I think he's still a bit too undiciplined in his play).
Our team just lacks skill all around. We have a very mediocre set of goaltenders. Our forwards really only have two proven scoring forwards in Mueller and Okposo. And our defense could've really used an asset like Sauer, whom nearly everyone posting here is bewildered as to why he was left off the team.
Just a lack of judgement, IMO. I highly doubt that this team does well in the WJCs. If they do, color me suprised. Although, at the same time, I sort of hope that they fall flat on their faces to possibly encourage USA Hockey to make wholesale changes in the way that they handle the team selection process.
A team with no Sauer, Ryan, Sanguinetti, or Summers that includes suspect players that don't offer as much of an all around gamea s some of the guys mentioned is just bewildering to me. I understand that the camps are used as judgement and all, but one would also think that you have to just pick some of the best talents as well to go along with it all (especially considering the camps can hardly give the coaching staff a full impression on what the player's abilities are).
Even if those players I mentioned are chosen to be spot players (IE 13th forwards, #6/7 d-men, etc.) at least they offer a much, much better fallback option in case (knock on wood) one of our guys is injured during the tournament. If a guy like JJ or EJ went down (again, knock on wood) than you could have a guy like Sauer come in and log HEAVY, HEAVY minutes and not look out of place playing against the top lines of other teams.
I'm just very, very disappointed with this team right now. In my honest opinion, we had a chance to be a gold medal contending team. With these selections I honestly think that chance has gone down the tubes.
