Kozlov - Fedorov - Bure
Forsberg - Sundin - Jagr
Ovechkin - Malkin - Kucherov
Selänne - Koivu - Lehtinen
Hossa
Fetisov - Konstantinov
Lidström - Karlsson
Hedman - Chara
Zubov
Hasek
Lundqvist
Kiprusoff
It’s hard! I tried for a different take where ultimately great players from relative “minnow countries” are getting shafted for… reasons. Kopitar and Draisaitl are obviously great, but I feel as if bringing at least a pair of players from each country might alleviate some of the sense of the team being a gimmicky mishmash, or something.
I’d like to bring a “Russian five” with some grasp of the concept, which is why Fetisov and Konstantinov are there, but it’s hard to figure Kozlov and Larionov onto the team given who I’m forced into leaving behind… Did keep Kozlov for position, in the end, but wasn’t sure if Bure, Mogilny or some next generation guy would do better there.
The Finnish line was great internationally, I think it makes a lot of sense bringing them. If this was a team, I wouldn’t be surprised if that line would be its X factor. I do see a lot of issues, ie. that Ovechkin was bad with Malkin and such. I really liked Jack Slater’s line with OV next to Sundin (would use him as center) and Forsberg, but Jagr with them would also be an absolute pain to play against.
Yeah, especially the Russians were tough to figure out here.
Vasilevskiy is a top 3 goalie here but I went with Kipper, then immediately regretted not bringing Myllys instead.