WC: Roster Talk '11 – France

[Belizarius]

Here's France preliminary roster according to the French federation :
http://www.hockeyfrance.com/upload/...Hommes/1011/EDFSen_Selection_Prepa_CM2011.pdf

Damien Fleury probably won't play because of family problems.
Matthieu Leblond replaced him for 2 friendly games.

France played Italy 2 times :
-Win in a shootout yesterday, 2-1. Desrosiers scored in regulation. Desrosiers, Meunier, Hecquefeuille scored in SO.
-Loss 4-1 in the 2nd game today, with Arrossamena scoring the lone goal.

The roster doesn't have a lot of surprises, with the lone major ommission of D Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel (Laredo-CHL).
F Mickaël Perez who had a strong season (2nd French scorer in Ligue Magnus behind Desrosiers), or D Hugues Cruchandeau who was very good for finalist Strasbourg and D Jonathan Janil were also possibilities.
Some kids could also have been there including Charles Bertrand (plays in Finland), Antoine Roussel (Providence-AHL), Kevin Dusseau.


2 leaders won't play because of injuries :
D Baptiste Amar, France's MVP in the last 3 worlds
F Yorick Treille


I don't remember a lot of years with roster controversy, that's nice to have a little depth now. Though defense will be a huge concern this year with Amar's injury.


France will play Canada, Switzerland and Belarus.
I guess a win vs Belarus could be enough to be in the 2nd round... if not, it will be the relegation round for the 3rd time in 4 years.

France will play its 4th consecutive world championship.
*Quebec 2008 - win relegation round vs Italy
*Switzerland 2009 - win vs Germany, reaches 2nd round
*Mannheim 2010 - relegation round, win vs Kazakhstan and Italy
*Kosice 2011

EDIT : thanks for the sticky

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[Grabovski]

Will Huet be playing? Also this is kind of off-topic from the WC but is there any promising prospects coming out of France?

 

[Belizarius]

Will Huet be playing? Also this is kind of off-topic from the WC but is there any promising prospects coming out of France?

Huet will play, and that's huge for us.
Stephane Da Costa (Ottawa) will play as well.

For your 2nd question, it's not an easy one.
Charles Bertrand (Hokki-Mestis) could be the best answer.
Pierrick Pivron, Eliot Berthon, Rémy Rimann, Victor Barbero (Switzerland) also had strong seasons.
Kevin Dusseau is also a monster with good skills.

Robin Gusse and Xavier Ouellet could also play for France, but they were at Canada U18 camp last summer.

 

[smitty10]

Will Huet be playing? Also this is kind of off-topic from the WC but is there any promising prospects coming out of France?

Stephan Da Costa is one, but I can't name any others to be honest. There's a French guy playing on Providence too, but I don't know if he's signed by Boston. Regardless he doesn't look like an NHL player.

 

[Belizarius]

Stephan Da Costa is one, but I can't name any others to be honest. There's a French guy playing on Providence too, but I don't know if he's signed by Boston. Regardless he doesn't look like an NHL player.

That's Antoine Roussel, who signed an AHL contract after his QMJHL time. More a 3rd liner, but it's still nice for us.

 

[Belizarius]

France U18 beat Denmark 2-1 (despite N. Jensen, from Oshawa) the Belarus 4-3 in OT.
That's a huge performance, as France U18 team is now Slovenia main competitor for the promotion.

We're progressing nicely

 

[zorz]

Congratz, I hope French U18 makes it to promotion. I'm fan of French NT since Treille brothers came to Czech Rep.

 

[Belizarius]

Congratz, I hope French U18 makes it to promotion. I'm fan of French NT since Treille brothers came to Czech Rep.

Sasha will be an important player for us in Kosice. Unfortunately, Yorick is injured

 

[Pajicz]

One player who hasn't been noticed is Yohann Auvitu, 1989-born defender. http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=11949

He usually plays in D Team, which is second-level (Mestis) affiliate of Finnish SM-Liiga team JYP, where Auvitu has also played in 7 games without points. In Mestis, his stats are 34gp, 10g+11a=21pts, pretty decent for a defenseman.

Also another Frenchman who's playing in Finland, Charles Bertrand (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=32965) has same kind of situation, and has been on loan in Mestis team Hokki. He played for Lukko in SM-Liiga playoffs, and scored least one goal with nice wrist shot.

Will they both play for Team France in World Championships?

 

[NicolasH]

Auvitu had a roster spot for preparation games as you can see so he might be in for the WC.

Charles Bertrand isn't, even as a replacement, so I don't think so. I remember him playing for team France U-20 last year and not matching the expectations about him (team France also got relegated). We have already some good forwards (unlike defensmen) so I don't see him making it. But he will definately make team France A in a few years, he is a very good prospect for our country.

It never has been huge differences in the past from the roster of preparation games and the WC. The roster in the first post will be the roster for the WC, except some injuries.

 

[Grabovski]

Good job today against Canada!

 

[Belizarius]

One player who hasn't been noticed is Yohann Auvitu, 1989-born defender. http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=11949

He usually plays in D Team, which is second-level (Mestis) affiliate of Finnish SM-Liiga team JYP, where Auvitu has also played in 7 games without points. In Mestis, his stats are 34gp, 10g+11a=21pts, pretty decent for a defenseman.

Also another Frenchman who's playing in Finland, Charles Bertrand (http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=32965) has same kind of situation, and has been on loan in Mestis team Hokki. He played for Lukko in SM-Liiga playoffs, and scored least one goal with nice wrist shot.

Will they both play for Team France in World Championships?

Auvitu will be one of our top defensemen for sure.
Bertrand isn't ready and will not be there... but count on him later.

Auvitu had a roster spot for preparation games as you can see so he might be in for the WC.

Charles Bertrand isn't, even as a replacement, so I don't think so. I remember him playing for team France U-20 last year and not matching the expectations about him (team France also got relegated). We have already some good forwards (unlike defensmen) so I don't see him making it. But he will definately make team France A in a few years, he is a very good prospect for our country.

It never has been huge differences in the past from the roster of preparation games and the WC. The roster in the first post will be the roster for the WC, except some injuries.

Agreed.
Today's roster :

GK: Cristobal Huet.

D: Johan Auvitu - Nicolas Besch ; Vincent Bachet (A) - Kevin Hecquefeuille (A) ; Thomas Roussel, Jonathan Janil.

F: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Laurent Meunier (C) - Sacha Treille ; Julien Desrosiers - Stéphane Da Costa - Damien Fleury ; Luc Tardif - Laurent Gras - Teddy Da Costa ; Brian Henderson - Damien Raux - Nicolas Arrossamena, Jérémie Romand.
Backup: Fabrice Lhenry (G).
3rd goalie : Ronan Quemener.

Good job today against Canada!

Yes, huge game for us ! I didn't expect such a good game from France vs this NHL roster. But we played really well, lot of hopes for Slovakia

 

[harju]

Any news about Antoine Roussel? Atleast his team lost 4-0 to Kalamazoo Wings in the ECHL playoffs. I think he would do well in 4th line

 

[Belizarius]

Any news about Antoine Roussel? Atleast his team lost 4-0 to Kalamazoo Wings in the ECHL playoffs. I think he would do well in 4th line

I don't know if he's coming.
At this point, France has lost several regulars because of injuries (Y. Treille, Amar, Manavian, Morant...)
So he may be in the mix for a spot, but he never played for France NT at this point so he seems a long shot.