kind of caught things a bit late, but I thought I heard on NHL on the Fly say that Byfuglien and Bogosian accepted offers to play for team USA. Again, not sure 100%, but thats what it sounded like to me...
this team has a shot at being a very competitive team, and like the others, I dont want to rush the selection process by naming 4th line grinders. Plenty of talent to be had here, plenty of 25 and under guys that should be willing to come on board.
goaltending is always a concern for this country, but the way Montoya has been playing, it would be fullish for him to say no thanks...kid needs to jump on everything he gets while its hot. I also wouldnt mind seeing Dipietro, I mean seriously, there isnt much else out there that can stop a puck besides Montoya and Conklin.....and maybe Esche. So why not if he wants to come.
Backes and Oshie need to set the tone early and accept to play for this team. Ditto for Erik Johnson and Matt Cullen who would be very big additions early on. If Toronto is on the outs, then I would hope Kessel would decide to play and give us one high end sniper for this team. Not holding hope out for Stastny as he had a rough year.
The first wave of 12 or so guys that I want to be named to this team would be as follows:
David Backes
T.J Oshie
Erik Johnson
Jamie McBain
Erik Cole
Matt Cullen
Kyle Okposo
David Booth
Dustin Byfuglien
Zach Bogosian
Nick Foligno
Nick Palmieri
RJ Umberger
Al Montoya
that would be the first wave that I would be super thrilled to have. That sets the tone for the rest of the selections, and allows the decision makers to take some time and wait for some early 1st round eliminations to add even more talent. You land a group like this, you will have plenty of takers willing to jump on board imo... Obviously this group is based off of teams out of the playoff race currently (if Toronto is out then put Kessel's butt on this list as well)
but this group has the size and skill that we rarely have at this event, and many names arent far fetched at all. Booth, Oshie, and Backes would be a lethal line... Umberger, Okposo, and Cole would be sick as well....just plenty of options there to mix and match.
again we always get our hopes up with all these "available" guys only to get the Ryan Carter, Erik Nystrom, and insert college kid here names that fill out the roster,,but this year should be a bit different with Versus televising it and no Olympic wear down either.
we will see very soon.