about Hofmann (center not lw)- he must have grown an inch during this season and gotten craftier, looked smaller and a lot more skinny at the beginning of the season, but already played bigger...
Well in Camp he did play with Pestoni and Walser and Hofmann was on LW with Pestoni on the RW and Walser the Center... Doesn't mean it'll be that way at the WJC, but he seems to be playing either Center or LW...
about the 93s: while I share your concerns I can see them both making the team. Bertaggia shows on NLA level that he's fearless and doesn't stop hustling even when being shoved around. Martschini seems to do just fine in rougher environment in NA.
e.g. Holenstein isn't much bigger.
That's what I'm saying... It's a very, very small team! Bertaggia, Martschini are the two 93 smalish forwards... Since both are very jung and very, very small I just can't see them both making the squad... Inexperienced and undersized? I don't know? I just read that the Canadiens Defensiv-Squad has an average size of 6'2!! What should those two boys between 5'5 and 5'8 do against those giants...
Pestoni, Engler, Holenstein, Erni, Loeffel are in my eyes undersized but talented.... Camperchioli, Scherwey, McGregor, Antonietti and Untersander are below average... So you see that already makes it 10 players who don't have size as their advantage... So I personally wouldn't add more undersized players, especially kids! I could see them both being cut, not talentwise but team constellation wise....
I've already shared my opinion about the final roster a few month ago and in this thread, but when you've seen them in camp. what's your guess at the final roster?
My Roster would look the following:
Starter: Benjamin Conz
Backup: Remo Giovannini
3rd stringer: Lukas Meili
Pretty obvious... Depends how the tournament goes, I definatly would give Giovannini a start against the f.e. the USA to get Conz some rest... Giovannini is behind Conz but clearly bevore Meili (who is a good Goalie, but don't know if he wins anything on international level? Needs a lot of work on his rebound controll and agility).
Defense:
Romain Loeffel - Nicholas Steiner
Dominik Schlumpf - Luca Camperchioli
Ramon Untersander - Dean Kukan
Dario Trutmann - Samuel Guerra
My cuts would be Samuel Erni, Mike Vermeille and Dave Sutter... Erni is definatly to small for the big stage... Going to be a good NL-Defender, though... Vermeille has the size but is not so an effective defender... With Sutter I'm not so sure since I haven't seen him that often! I could see his size and experience on North American Ice surface as an advantage for him... In that case I could see Guerra dropp out from the defensiv group! Guerra is a good and steady defender, but has limited puck-moving skills.... Like I mentioned before Kukan is ahead of him!
My forward-group would look like this:
Nino Niederreiter - Ryan McGregor - Sven Bärtschi
Tristan Scherwey - Joël Vermin - Gaëtan Haas
Gregory Hofmann - Samuel Walser - Inti Pestoni
Yannick Herren - Reto Schäppi - Lino Martschini
So I would go with Martschini and cut Bertaggia, Antonietti, Engler, Holenstein, Rexha and Reymondin... But I could see Martschini dropp out and be replaced with Benjamin Antonietti.... Walser is also a little bit a question mark and I could see him being cut and in his favour Joel Reymondin could be taken who has the size to his advantage... What I don't like about my forward group is that I only have two right handed shooters (Haas and Martschini) so I'd be missing some weapons on the PP... Anyways overall I realy like the forward group and am thrilled about the 1st line of Bärtschi, McGregor and Niederreiter! They already played together at the U20 Summer Challenge in Arosa and realy excelled....