Chiarelli will GM the Young Stars (U23) team at the 2016 World Cup

[Samus44]

I think it's absurd that the NHL is arrogant enough to think a team like Slovakia isn't competitive enough to be in the tournament. They nearly beat Canada in 2010 in the Semis at the Olympics and have been strong in the World Championships.

I just don't get why they thought they had to reinvent the wheel for this tournament, especially if they want this to replace the Olympics. This feels more like a made for TV marketing event for the NHL rather than a legitimate international best on best tournament.

I don't think that was the rational, rather i think the thinking was that since Slovakia itself is close to being a contender (they need some luck to ever win) but still a little shy and there's some other good players in Europe that could make them a legit contender and get other star players involved at the same time. No matter how you look at it Slovakia is always going to be the dark horse, never as good as Finland or the Czech's, but clearly better than the Swiss or Germans. The Slovaks give that team a competitve base and the rest of Europe will make it contender worthy. This tournament will be more representitive of the best players in the game than anyother before it and it will represent more countires, it stings for the Slovaks a bit but they haven't done enough in international tournaments to be indignant about it.

 

[Samus44]

lol weird to finally have a GM who gets selected for these kind of stuff. Imagine Tambo or mact being selected

Kevin Lowe was involved in a decision making capacity on numerous Team Canada's.

 

[TheRebuild]

here's hoping that the "North American Youngstars" go all the way
where can I get a jersey?

 

[GMofOilers]

I think it's absurd that the NHL is arrogant enough to think a team like Slovakia isn't competitive enough to be in the tournament. They nearly beat Canada in 2010 in the Semis at the Olympics and have been strong in the World Championships.

I just don't get why they thought they had to reinvent the wheel for this tournament, especially if they want this to replace the Olympics. This feels more like a made for TV marketing event for the NHL rather than a legitimate international best on best tournament.

Same could be said about the Swiss, so now Slovaks + Swiss + Kopitar lol will form a even stronger team. Its going to be great hockey.

 

[joestevens29]

There were decisions like that made specifically to make the tournament more competitive. Canada and USA have some advantage since it is their home turf. The U23 team was made to nerf those teams. This principle is also behind that world team, made up of lower tier nations that couldn't win on their own.

I think it will be great.

That's a bunch of ********. The last time the Olympics were held, where did the host country end up?

Not sure how you have a Tourney called World Cup of hockey with bogus crap like this. Just call it the Off-Season Stanley Cup if they want to gimmick the tourney. They want this to replace the Olympics, but only 6 Countries can win? I'd prefer if they did this for the Women's and just had 4 or 5 teams instead of the Olympics, but for the Men's there is too much competition to do this.

 

[Samus44]

here's hoping that the "North American Youngstars" go all the way
where can I get a jersey?

Hall-McDavid-
-Hopkins

Nurse
Reinhart

Brossoit

In the coming years all these guys could easily make that team. I could see Nurse making it this year and i expect all 3 of the forwards to do so as well. It could definetly feel like the Oilers' team for the next two cups.

 

[GMofOilers]

That's a bunch of ********. The last time the Olympics were held, where did the host country end up?

Not sure how you have a Tourney called World Cup of hockey with bogus crap like this. Just call it the Off-Season Stanley Cup if they want to gimmick the tourney. They want this to replace the Olympics, but only 6 Countries can win? I'd prefer if they did this for the Women's and just had 4 or 5 teams instead of the Olympics, but for the Men's there is too much competition to do this.

Its not suppose to be like the Olympics, so why you so mad?

 

[Samus44]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/...m-young-guns-roster-projected-connor-mcdavid/

Apparently they haven't said if a player has to play for the under 23 team or not yet. So it's still possible they'll let Canadian/Americans play for their home country. It'll hurt the Americans if they can't include some of their younger players on their roster, Canada doesn't matter unless McDavid is Crosby+ (Crosby didn't make Team Canada as a rookie). If they let guys play for their home country first i think the format is awesome, i might prefer a Team Canada 2 though. Imagine a team of all the guys snubbed from Team Canada, they'd be crazy motivated and still be representing their country.hahaha.

 

[Samus44]

Tatar - Kopitar - Gaborik
Hossa - Nielsen - Bodeker
Vanek - Girgensons - Zuccarello
Hansen - Grabovski - Niederreiter
Roussel - Eller - Grabner

Josi - Sekera
Chara - Seidenberg
Ehrhoff - Streit
Visnovsky - Diaz

Andersen-Halak-Hiller

Extras:
W: Dano-Burakovsky-Ehlers-Kopecky-Jurco-Brunner-Bjorkstrand-Fiala-Raffl-Thoreson
C: Draisaitl-Regin-Goc-Zubrus
D: Weber-Meszaros-Sbisa-Marincin-Sulzer-Hulzer-Larsson
G: Greiss

 

[joestevens29]

Its not suppose to be like the Olympics, so why you so mad?

The plan is for this to take over for the Olympics.

 

[Zaddy]

I think the young stars idea is fun. Personally I love watching young guys compete. It's generally not so much about dumping pucks but rather about spectacular, skillful and enjoyable hockey. Loved watching the very young swedish team at the world championships last spring. Even though they didn't win the tournament they played fun hockey and it was the first time I enjoyed watching the swedish WC team in a looooong time.

 

[GMofOilers]

The plan is for this to take over for the Olympics.

I think the plan right now is to make a extra $200 Million. Every player still wants to play in the Olympics, does it happen? I think so, its the worlds biggest stage for hockey.

Also this format is just for the first cup, after that there will be no team Europe and no team U23. The only reason they made them 2 teams was because there wasnt enough time to determine the last 2 teams without being fair about it. They are implementing a process going forward on how to qualify for this tournament.

 

[Lacaar]

I think it's absurd that the NHL is arrogant enough to think a team like Slovakia isn't competitive enough to be in the tournament. They nearly beat Canada in 2010 in the Semis at the Olympics and have been strong in the World Championships.

I just don't get why they thought they had to reinvent the wheel for this tournament, especially if they want this to replace the Olympics. This feels more like a made for TV marketing event for the NHL rather than a legitimate international best on best tournament.

Slovakia makes it competitive by playing the worst brand of defensive hockey you'll ever see.

It's the problem with the Olympics. The weaker teams just hunker down and play some of the least entertaining hockey I've ever seen in my life.

At all costs they need to avoid this for the World Cup.
Priority #1 is entertaining hockey imo.
Not a bunch of talentless scrubs executing a system that makes the neutral zone trap seem aggressive.

 

[rboomercat90]

I think the plan right now is to make a extra $200 Million. Every player still wants to play in the Olympics, does it happen? I think so, its the worlds biggest stage for hockey.

Also this format is just for the first cup, after that there will be no team Europe and no team U23. The only reason they made them 2 teams was because there wasnt enough time to determine the last 2 teams without being fair about it. They are implementing a process going forward on how to qualify for this tournament.

If they were so hell bent on the idea of axeing two Euro countries for the purposes of "competitive balance", it would have made more sense just to go with a second Canadian team and get rid of the U23 label. A second team would likely be filled with younger guys but doesn't need to be labeled that way. That's what Canadian fans have always dreamed about anyway. The tournament is entirely in Canada so it would be an easy sell in public opinion. They could have left the U.S. team alone and then only had one goofy mixed country team in a World Cup. I feel bad for these players that finally get to play a major international tournament but miss out on all the patriotism and flag waving because of a moronic set up like this.

 

[GMofOilers]

If they were so hell bent on the idea of axeing two Euro countries for the purposes of "competitive balance", it would have made more sense just to go with a second Canadian team and get rid of the U23 label. A second team would likely be filled with younger guys but doesn't need to be labeled that way. That's what Canadian fans have always dreamed about anyway. The tournament is entirely in Canada so it would be an easy sell in public opinion. They could have left the U.S. team alone and then only had one goofy mixed country team in a World Cup. I feel bad for these players that finally get to play a major international tournament but miss out on all the patriotism and flag waving because of a moronic set up like this.

Thats what the Olympics are for though. This isnt suppose to be the Olympics, just a high level play of hockey.

Anyways we see things different, im excited, and the players are excited.

 

[joestevens29]

Thats what the Olympics are for though. This isnt suppose to be the Olympics, just a high level play of hockey.

Anyways we see things different, im excited, and the players are excited.

The NHL is doing this because they want out of the Olympics. The Olympics will become meaningless in the near future.

 

[GMofOilers]

The NHL is doing this because they want out of the Olympics. The Olympics will become meaningless in the near future.

Maybe, the players all still wanna play. If they do become meaningless, the format of this tournament changes anyways.

 

[rboomercat90]

Maybe, the players all still wanna play. If they do become meaningless, the format of this tournament changes anyways.

So basically you're just saying this particular tournament is meaningless. The plan is to do it properly in the future?

I'm looking forward to this tournament too. I will happily watch every game. I just think it sucks that in an international tournament we will have two teams out of eight that don't belong to a country. If the plan, as you're acknowledging, is to do it right in the future. It should have been done right from day one. This format is not right otherwise the plan for the future would be to stick with it and according to you, they aren't.

You're arguing that this isn't an Olympic tournament but from everything I've heard the NHL plans on continuing to hold it because they aren't interested in going to Asia. Next two games are in Korea and China so that means a tournament like this is here to stay for over a decade. It may not exactly be an Olympics but it is eerily similar to the old Canada Cup tournaments and they were flag waving international tournaments not comprised of All-Star teams. You can't call something a World Cup and set it up like this.

 

[GMofOilers]

So basically you're just saying this particular tournament is meaningless. The plan is to do it properly in the future?

I'm looking forward to this tournament too. I will happily watch every game. I just think it sucks that in an international tournament we will have two teams out of eight that don't belong to a country. If the plan, as you're acknowledging, is to do it right in the future. It should have been done right from day one. This format is not right otherwise the plan for the future would be to stick with it and according to you, they aren't.

You're arguing that this isn't an Olympic tournament but from everything I've heard the NHL plans on continuing to hold it because they aren't interested in going to Asia. Next two games are in Korea and China so that means a tournament like this is here to stay for over a decade. It may not exactly be an Olympics but it is eerily similar to the old Canada Cup tournaments and they were flag waving international tournaments not comprised of All-Star teams. You can't call something a World Cup and set it up like this.

Heres a little quote

Commissioner Bettman said the hope is to hold a World Cup every four years with an evolving format based on the strength of the national teams, particularly those in Europe. He said future World Cup competitions could feature a prequalification tournament to determine the eight countries participating, but there wasn't enough time to put together a prequalification tournament before September 2016.

"We wanted to keep the first one exciting, entertaining and competitive, and get it right," Commissioner Bettman said. "We didn't with the timing have the luxury of a prequalification tournament. We're going to let this evolve. We believe we're going to build off of it and cause it to evolve, so you may see more teams, you may see a prequalification tournament, you may see it with other events. But this is the starting point. This is the foundation of what we wanted to do together."

 

[Replacement*]

So basically you're just saying this particular tournament is meaningless. The plan is to do it properly in the future?

I'm looking forward to this tournament too. I will happily watch every game. I just think it sucks that in an international tournament we will have two teams out of eight that don't belong to a country. If the plan, as you're acknowledging, is to do it right in the future. It should have been done right from day one. This format is not right otherwise the plan for the future would be to stick with it and according to you, they aren't.

You're arguing that this isn't an Olympic tournament but from everything I've heard the NHL plans on continuing to hold it because they aren't interested in going to Asia. Next two games are in Korea and China so that means a tournament like this is here to stay for over a decade. It may not exactly be an Olympics but it is eerily similar to the old Canada Cup tournaments and they were flag waving international tournaments not comprised of All-Star teams. You can't call something a World Cup and set it up like this.

Yeah, being a "World Cup" soccer purist this is one of the silliest formats I've ever seen. Naming it a world Cup and then having it not contested entirely by actual Nations is bizarre. No other word for it.

This is contrivance and the intent is obvious. Game fixing. Making the tournament a toss up. Deleting talent from Canada and US to even things out a bit. Why on Earth a league that resides in NA would do that is anybodies guess.

As far as the young stars team that's pure, crass, marketing. Pandors to the kiddies and may as well be on Nickelodeon. Its all about capturing youth market and "look now we have our own nation of kid to cheer for.

Cue department of youth, Alice Cooper.

 

[rboomercat90]

Heres a little quote

Pretty much confirming what I said.

In any event, they didn't need to put two all-star teams in it. That is my only complaint here, but it's a big one. They could have used IHHF rankings to determine the seventh and eighth teams or gone by Olympic placement from last year in lieu of no time to hold a qualifier. There was no reason to turn this tournament into a one off gimmick and that's what this format does.

 

[rboomercat90]

Even the players are recognizing how ridiculous this is wondering what anthem gets played if one of the all-star teams wins. Good God, what an embarrassment in the making.

 

[joestevens29]

Even the players are recognizing how ridiculous this is wondering what anthem gets played if one of the all-star teams wins. Good God, what an embarrassment in the making.

The problem is people are going to watch. People crave hockey at this time and in Toronto people will pay big bucks to fill the arena. This thing can be a god damn joke and look like a gimmick, but it still will make millions upon millions of dollars. And we all know that's the only thing that matters here.

The funny thing is the NHL says it doesn't like the Olympics in part because of the risk of injuries to it's players, but they sure don't care when they are going to benefit financially from it.

 

[KMart27]

When the World Cup is scheduled the European leagues will have already started their seasons and I'm not sure those teams would want to send their players to this tournament. If that's the case, a country like Slovakia wouldn't even have enough players available to make a team. The European all star team creates what will likely be a more competitive team as well as allowing some star players to play that normally couldn't. The under 23 team gives the NHL the opportunity to show off the young stars in the league. There may be a lot of people who don't like the format but it makes sense from the NHL's perspective.

 

[GMofOilers]

Even the players are recognizing how ridiculous this is wondering what anthem gets played if one of the all-star teams wins. Good God, what an embarrassment in the making.

Then the same player says "It doesnt get better than playing in Toronto for Team Canada"

Ridiculous!