World junior no shows

Every year at world junior time a Canadian invariably moans about the players who aren't on the team because they're in the NHL. Non-Canadians inevitably reply that it's the same for everybody

In attempt to answer the question once and for all, I've put together a list of no-shows for each world junior since 1982. I started with '82 because that's the year Canada began sending an all-star team. I've only listed players who missed the championship because they were with NHL teams, not because of injuries or because they weren't picked by their countries. My main source was the first edition of the Total Hockey guide. Using the draft lists and individual player stats, I've compiled what I hope is a fairly accurate list. Having said that, I'm sure there are a few mistakes, so no flames please. This wasn't the easiest thing to do, so if you spot errors, point them out and I'll correct them. I'm actually less certain of the last few years than I am about the older stuff, so help out if you can.

I only looked at the major hockey countries, so sorry, Germany and Switzerland, but you're out of luck. If a country isn't listed each year, it means everybody was available to them.


1982 (Canada gold)

Canada: Dale Hawerchuk, Ron Francis, Grant Fuhr, Jim Benning, Mark Hunter, Doug Smith, Joe Cirella.

United States: Bobby Carpenter.


1983 (Soviet gold)

Canada: Dale Hawerchuk, Ron Francis, Jim Benning, Doug Smith, Gord Kluzak, Brian Bellows, Gary Nylund, Ron Sutter, Rich Sutter, Scott Stevens.

United States: Phil Housley.


1984 (Soviet gold)

Canada: Steve Yzerman, Sylvain Turgeon, Dan Quinn, Andrew McBain, Cam Neely, Brian Bellows, Gord Kluzak, Pat Verbeek, Chris Kontos, Scott Stevens, Rocky Trottier, Michel Petit. Interesting note: Mario Lemieux, although not yet drafted, was eligible to return (he played on the '83 team) but didn't. He played a full junior season, so didn't appear to be injured. Did he decline the invite?

United States: Phil Housley, Brian Leetch, Pat Lafontaine, Tom Barrasso.


1985 (Canada gold)

Canada: Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Sylvain Turgeon, Dan Quinn, Cam Neely, Kirk Muller, Craig Redmond, Doug Bodger, J.J. Daigneault, Sylvain Cote, Russ Courtnall, Andrew McBain.

United States: Ed Olcyk, Al Iafrate, Kevin Hatcher, Pat Lafontaine, Brian Lawton, Tom Barrasso.

Czechoslovakia: Petr Svoboda.


1986 (Soviet gold)

Canada: Wendel Clark, Craig Simpson, Dana Murzyn.

United States: Craig Wolanin.


1987 (Finland gold)

Canada: Vince Damphousse, Jocelyn Lemieux, Jeff Greenlaw, Craig Simpson, Dave Manson, Joe Murphy, Zarley Zalapskl, Shawn Anderson.

United States: Craig Wolanin.


1988 (Canada gold)

Canada: Pierre Turgeon, Zarley Zalapski, Shawn Anderson, Brendan Shanahan, Glen Welsey, Dave Archibald, Luke Richardson, Everett Sanipass, Jeff Greenlaw.

United States: Brian Leetch.


1989 (Soviet gold)

Canada: Joe Sakic, Pierre Turgeon, Brendan Shanahan, Chris Joseph, Dave Archibald, Luke Richardson, Stephane Quintal, Trevor Linden, Curtis Leschyshyn, Mark Recchi.


1990 (Canada gold)

Canada: Trevor Linden, Curtis Leschyshyn, Martin Gelinas, Rod Brind 'Amour.

United States: Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick.


1991 (Canada gold)

Canada: Owen Nolan, Dave Chyzowski, Keith Primeau, Mike Ricci.

Czechoslovakia: Bobby Holik, Robert Reichel, Petr Nedved, Jaromir Jagr.

Sweden: Mats Sundin.


1992 (Russia gold)

Canada: Owen Nolan, Geoff Sanderson, Pat Falloon.

United States: Darian Hatcher.

Czechoslovakia: Jaromir Jagr.



1993 (Canada gold)

Canada: Eric Lindros, Scott Niedermayer, Patrick Poulin, Richard Matvichuk.

Russia: Darius Kasparaitis, Alexei Kovalev.

Czechoslovakia: Roman Hamrlik, Robert Petrovicky.



1994 (Canada gold)

Canada: Alexandre Daigle, Chris Pronger, Chris Gratton, Paul Kariya, Rob Niedermayer, Jason Arnott, Jocelyn Thibault.



1995 (Canada gold)

NHL lockout. Everybody played.



1996 (Canada gold)

Canada: Ed Jovanovski, Jeff O'Neill, Ryan Smyth, Jason Wiemer, Brett Lindros, Jeff Friesen, Chad Kilger, Shane Doan, Kyle McLaren.

Russia: Oleg Tverdovsky.

Czech Republic: Radek Bonk, Stan Neckar, Josef Marha, Radek Dvorak, Petr Sykora.

United States: Jason Bonsignore.

Finland: Aki Berg.



1997 (Canada gold)

Canada: Wade Redden, Kyle McLaren, Jarome Iginla, Jay McKee.

Czech Republic: Radek Dvorak.



1998 (Finland gold)

Canada: Chris Phillips, Eric Brewer, Manny Malhotra, Derek Morris, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau.

Russia: Andrei Zyuzin, Sergei Samsonov.



1999 (Russia gold)

Canada: Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Vincent Lecavalier.

Slovakia: Marian Hossa.



2000 (Czech gold)

Canada: Vincent Lecavalier, Simon Gagne, Robyn Regehr, Jonathan Girard.

Russia: Dimitri Kalinin.

United States: David Legwand.


2001 (Czech gold)

Canada: Scott Hartnell.

Slovakia: Marian Gaborik.



2002 (Russia gold)

Canada: Scott Hartnell.

Slovakia: Marian Gaborik.

Czech Republic: Rostislava Klesla, Vaclav Nederost.

Russia: Ilya Kovalchuk.



2003 (Russia gold)

Canada: Jason Spezza, Rick Nash, Stephen Weiss, Dan Blackburn, Jay Bouwmeester.

Russia: Ilya Kovalchuk, Stanislav Chistov.


2004 (U.S. gold)

Canada: Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Rick Nash, Patrice Bergeron, Eric Staal, Nathan Horton.

Czech Republic: Milan Michalek.

Russia: Nikolai Zherdev.

United States: Dustin Brown.



2005 (Canada gold)

Canada: Brent Burns.


Totals:

Canada: 133 players (includes players appearing more than once)
United States: 21
Czechs: 17
Russia 10
Slovakia 3
Sweden 1
Finland 1

 

Interesting read, seems the Canadian teams post 2000 (except 2003 & 4) were not really missing much. Not that Lecavilier for example is not a great player, just that he is only one player.

The 1992 team was probably better off without Fat Balloon.

 

Nathan Horton, Brent Burns, Eric Staal

 

Staal was too old. Horton was offered by Florida but not until after the start of camp and Canada refused, therefore not on the list. I'm not sure if Burns was offered or not. He's playing defence now, so might not have been needed.

 

Oh my

To quote Old Ben Kenobi

"That's a name I haven't heard in a long time"

 

you should have watched the video provided by Psycho Joe in the '87 brawl thread. He was all over the Soviets in that!

 

Horton was only offered for the tournament, he was not offered for the training camp. It's a Hockey Canada policy that he has to be available for the whole camp and tournament, so he should be on the list.

Burns should be added, since he was not loaned. We can argue if he would have made the team or not, since he is not a defenceman, but he was not available, so he should be on the list.

But, a great list overall. Thanks

 

Burns was not offered as the Wild have a policy of releasing their players to play in the tournament only once.

Question: Were you considering European players who were playing in the AHL/IHL at the time of the tournament, or only guys who were in the NHL?

 

I considered AHL/IHL too. If they weren't released, they should be on the list. But again, the last four years or so were difficult for me so I don't doubt I missed somebody. The 80s and 90s were fairly easy.

 

Horton falls in a grey area for me. Canada could have taken him, but wouldn't bend its rules, so he stays off IMO. I will add Burns.

 

Good posts macman, thanks.

 

Zubrus is not Russian, he's from Lithuania

 

Yeah, but he's played for Russia internationally, most recently the World Cup.

 

Only at the world cup, he's inelligible for IIHF tournaments

 

Falloon was solid till his injurys...

However even in the suisse league he disappointed.

 

Right you are. I'll edit list. Thanks.

 

Holy crap, that team would have had unbelievable offense. Mario, Yzerman, Turgeon, Quinn, Neely, Bellows, Stevens, Verbeek, Kluzak, plus Russ Courtnall, Evason, Leeman, John MacLean, Muller, and Gagner from the team that actually went (and tied the gold-medalist Soviets 3-3.)

 

First of all, it goes to show how dominant some of these Canadian teams would have been. There were a few omissions, most notably from the 2000 team, besides Lecavalier. That year, we were also without Simon Gagne, Jonathan Girard, Robyn Regher, Rico Fata and Mike Fisher. Bryan Allen would have been a shoo-in if he weren't injured.

The U.S. was also without David Legwand in 2000.

In 2002, Canada also missed Dan Blackburn. While that may not seem like much, if you watched Pascal LeClaire blunder his way through the gold medal game, you'd understand why it's a big deal.

In 1998 (the eighth place year) were also without 1997 hero Boyd Devereaux and Dan Cleary. (We were also victimized by the most incompetent coaching job in tournament history, but that's another rant for another time).

In 1999, we were without Eric Brewer, Manny Malholtra and Alex Tanguay (due to injury).

But overall, a great, well-researched post.

 

Tell me about that 98 team, who was even on that pos? Who was the coach as well?

 

Thanks for this. Like I said, I was unsure about the more recent years because my Total Hockey guide doesn't cover them.

I've confirmed that you're right about Gagne, Girard, Regehr, Legwand, Brewer and Malhotra. Fata only played twp games with the Flames that year, which implies he was either injured for the world juniors or in the minors and likely eligible. I'm going to hold off on him for now. Devereaux is the same. He played 38 games for the Oilers, so I don't know what his status was for the tournament. Ditto for Fisher. Cleary was too old for the 1998 tourney. He turned 20 just before it began.

 

Quick question: I havent been a huge WJHC fan for the last few years until last year... Why didnt canada take those guys such as Nash, J-Bo, etc? Did they not want to disturb them in the NHL or something? Sorry if this seems naive but I didnt really follow the WJHC back then. Thanks.

 

The NHL teams wouldn't release them to play in the tournament. Some occasionally do but most don't. In the case of a guy like Nash, he was one of Columbus's best players even as an 18 year old.

 

It's not about what Canada wants or doesn't want to disturb. Canada doesn't get to say ****. It's about the pro teams these guys are under contract with. These teams determine what happens with those youngsters. If it's acceptable to Canada, they live with it. When it's not ok (such as Horton) they don't accept. And sometimes, the pro team won't even bother making a player available because they figure he is better off elsewhere or they need him.