Team USA: how good can they be?

[blinkman360]

USA has a lot of talent that are either young NHLers or highly touted prospects. They have two very good young goaltenders in Miller and DiPietro, a few solid young defenders in Suter, Liles and Leopold as well as 2 incredibly strong defensive prospects in the Johnsons. At forward they have guys like Cole, Gionta and Gomez who are still relatively young, young guys just breaking in such as Kessel, Umberger, Stempniak, Stastny, Stafford, and Pavelski, and big time prospects like Kane, Ryan, Okposo, Mueller and Schremp pretty close to the NHL level(yes, including Kane).

Also don't forget guys like Drury and Rafalski will still be around and most likely contributing significantly come the '10 Olympics. I really think with all this young talent, especially with the majority of it playing at the NHL level already(or most likely being there next year), team USA could be pretty dangerous in the next couple of Olympic games.

Thoughts?

Click to read more...

 

[superstar436]

sorry but I did not see higgins. I am a habs fan so you might call me a homer but believe me you will love him. He will play on the 2 lines.

 

[MN_Gopher]

The thing with team USA. Is they finally have the depth. Size on and physical play on defense. But after all the upgrades they will still just be at best on par with the other elite countries of the world. For every Kessel we have there is a Crosby, Ovechkin, Gaborik. For every EJ there is a Phaneuf. For every well rounded Parise there is a Malkin. Team USA is getting better. But it is only closing the gap. Not creating seperation.

 

[blinkman360]

sorry but I did not see higgins. I am a habs fan so you might call me a homer but believe me you will love him. He will play on the 2 lines.

Wow, can't believe I forgot him, being that I'm a Long Island native. Might as well add Komi to that list as well.

BTW, I apologize to any fans of teams who's players/prospects I forgot. It's just that there are so many and I'm a wee-bit tired right now.

 

[Geese_Howard*]

USA is improving, no doubt, but so is every other country.

 

[Erika]

Team USA would look like this:

Cole - Modano - Kessel
Higgins - Rolston - Parise
Tkachuk - Weight - Guerin
Blake - Stastny - Stempniak
Langenbrunner - Gomez - Parrish
Malone - Drury - Gionta
Umberger - Connolly - Stafford
Cullen - Pavelski - Park


Hatcher - E.Johnson
Hainsey - Komisarek
J.Johnson - Rafalski
Martin - Pothier
Carle - Liles
Suter - Leopold

Dipietro
Miller
Thomas
Dunham
Grahame

Looks okay to me... You can do at least 2 teams and they might be good enough to battle for medal rounds in the International tournaments...

 

[Crossfire Hurricane]

Dipietro
Miller
Thomas
Dunham
Grahame

What, no Esche?

 

[Macman]

The U.S. is consistently producing top-end talent now, just look at the draft in recent years, and will contend for most everything from now on. The next step, though, will be to produce a generational talent like Crosby, Lemieux, Gretzky or Orr in the way Canada seems to every decade or so.

 

[MN_Gopher]

Keith Ballard should be in there too.

 

[DevilsFan38]

What about Chelios?

I agree, I'm really excited about the US team for 2010. They've got a ton of skill, especially at forward - Kane and JVR will probably also be ready by the time of the next Olympics.

 

[Burgs]

So should Ryan Whitney.

 

[Erika]

I knew that I forgot some Peeps

 

[Faktisti*]

ye usa sounds strong, but its so difficult to say will kessel or JVR and the others be so fantastic. usa players are and will be drafted very hogh, but is it because they are so good or because they have played together in junior teams for so long time? are they so good than they look like? i may sound pessimistic, but what comes to JVR i wouldnt be so sure that he will be in USA olympic team after 3 years

 

[Nash]

Team USA would look like this:

Cole - Modano - Kessel
Higgins - Rolston - Parise
Tkachuk - Weight - Guerin
Blake - Stastny - Stempniak
Langenbrunner - Gomez - Parrish
Malone - Drury - Gionta
Umberger - Connolly - Stafford
Cullen - Pavelski - Park


Hatcher - E.Johnson
Hainsey - Komisarek
J.Johnson - Rafalski
Martin - Pothier
Carle - Liles
Suter - Leopold

Dipietro
Miller
Thomas
Dunham
Grahame

Looks okay to me... You can do at least 2 teams and they might be good enough to battle for medal rounds in the International tournaments...

If I was planning a squad for the USA, I would definitely remove the geriatrics from the lineup. No more Modano, Weight, Guerin, Tkachuk, Hatcher or Chelios. You got to remember this isn't going to happen for 3 years and some of those guys will retire by then or be well past their prime.

Cole-Drury-Kessel
Parise-Gomez-Gionta
Higgins-Stastny-O'Sullivan
Langenbrunner-Rolston-Stafford
Mueller or Kane

J. Johnson-E. Johnson
Corvo-Rafalski
Carle-Ballard
Liles or Whitney

Dipietro
Miller
Howard

 

[Rochester22]

The thing with team USA. Is they finally have the depth. Size on and physical play on defense. But after all the upgrades they will still just be at best on par with the other elite countries of the world. For every Kessel we have there is a Crosby, Ovechkin, Gaborik. For every EJ there is a Phaneuf. For every well rounded Parise there is a Malkin. Team USA is getting better. But it is only closing the gap. Not creating seperation.

I don't know if you meant to compare those two players or not but Parise, and Malkin are pretty much complete opposites.

 

[Rochester22]

Parise - Gomez - Gionta
Higgins - Stastny - Kessel
Cole - Drury - Langenbrunner
Stafford - Rolston - O'Sullivan

J. Johnson - Rafalski
Liles - E. Johnson
Carle - Komisarek

Miller

 

[AmericanDream]

If I was planning a squad for the USA, I would definitely remove the geriatrics from the lineup. No more Modano, Weight, Guerin, Tkachuk, Hatcher or Chelios. You got to remember this isn't going to happen for 3 years and some of those guys will retire by then or be well past their prime.

Cole-Drury-Kessel
Parise-Gomez-Gionta
Higgins-Stastny-O'Sullivan
Langenbrunner-Rolston-Stafford
Mueller or Kane

J. Johnson-E. Johnson
Corvo-Rafalski
Carle-Ballard
Liles or Whitney

Dipietro
Miller
Howard

pretty good squad IMO. I dont know how ready O'sullivan will be, but I think Kane will be ready to dance by then. I cant really leave out Ryan Suter either. But I also think Stempniak will be there too. but finally starting to get some depth at all positions.

 

[Randall Graves*]

I am looking more towards 2014 as the year where our young players mature and we have a legit chance at a gold medal. I wouldn't waste many 2010 spots on guys past their prime, have guys like Rolston/Drury/Langenbrunner etc and then try to use it as a learning experiance for guys you are projecting for 2014.

 

[go_habs_go]

I just made up 3 Canadian teams here...i know there are players that i probably missed and some that are where they shouldnt be, but regardless i think they are 3 good teams that would compete.


Nash - Crosby - Iginla
Heatley - Spezza - Thornton
Smyth - Lecavalier - St Louis
Briere - Sakic - E.Staal

Niedermayer - Pronger
Phaneuf - Boyle
Campbell - Redden

Luongo
Brodeur



Cheechoo - Gagne - Shanahan
Doan - Marleau - Kariya
Cammelleri - Richards - Williams
Bertuzzi - Savard - Tanguay

Souray - Phillips
Bouwmeester - Hannan
McCabe - Boucher

Giguere
Emery



Murray - Bergeron - Pominville
Getzlaf - McDonald - Sullivan
Ryder - J.Staal - Horton
Wellwood - Roy - Toews

Jovanovski - Brewer
Bieksa - Rivet
Bergeron - Blake

Turco
Fleury

 

[Rabid Ranger]

I think this year's World Championships will prove to be a nice starting point for what should be improvement on the world stage leading up to the Olympics in 2010. There is clearly a plan in place within USA Hockey (led by the four man management group: Poile, Burke, Shero, and Waddell) to utilize the burgeoning American talent that has been the pipeline for the last few years. I think the U.S. will be a legit challenger for not only World Championships medals over the next few years, but also in Vancouver in 2010 (and beyond). Here's who I see as the core players pool over the next few years:

Goaltenders:

Miller, DiPietro, Schneider, Montoya, Howard, Bacashuhia.

Defensemen:

Komisarek. Rafalski, Martin, Greene, Ballard, Suter, Carle, Liles, Leopold, E. Johnson, J. Johnson, Gleason, Orpik, Whitney, Preissing, Corvo, Niskanen, Gilbert, Chorney, Pothier, Lebda, Alberts, Stuart, Lashoff, Hainsey.

Forwards:

Blake, Cole, Drury, Higgins, Eaves, Kessel, O'Sullivan, Brown, Stafford, Malone, Legwand, Ryan, Kane, Schremp, Callahan, Cullen, Rolston, Stempniak, Grier, Pavelski, Skille, Stastny, Arnason, Kesler, Schremp, Oshie, Gomez, Gionta, Parise, Langenbrunner, Dubinsky, Umberger, Okposo, Lewis, Mueller, Fritsche, Connolly.

 

[TPS 61*]

USA has a lot of talent that are either young NHLers or highly touted prospects. They have two very good young goaltenders in Miller and DiPietro, a few solid young defenders in Suter, Liles and Leopold as well as 2 incredibly strong defensive prospects in the Johnsons. At forward they have guys like Cole, Gionta and Gomez who are still relatively young, young guys just breaking in such as Kessel, Umberger, Stempniak, Stastny, Stafford, and Pavelski, and big time prospects like Kane, Ryan, Okposo, Mueller and Schremp pretty close to the NHL level(yes, including Kane).

Also don't forget guys like Drury and Rafalski will still be around and most likely contributing significantly come the '10 Olympics. I really think with all this young talent, especially with the majority of it playing at the NHL level already(or most likely being there next year), team USA could be pretty dangerous in the next couple of Olympic games.

Thoughts?

Tack on Danny Fritsche and Ron Hainsey to that list.

 

[TPS 61*]

I think this year's World Championships will prove to be a nice starting point for what should be improvement on the world stage leading up to the Olympics in 2010. There is clearly a plan in place within USA Hockey (led by the four man management group: Poile, Burke, Shero, and Waddell) to utilize the burgeoning American talent that has been the pipeline for the last few years. I think the U.S. will be a legit challenger for not only World Championships medals over the next few years, but also in Vancouver in 2010 (and beyond). Here's who I see as the core players pool over the next few years:

Goaltenders:

Miller, DiPietro, Schneider, Montoya, Howard, Bacashuhia.

Defensemen:

Komisarek. Rafalski, Martin, Greene, Ballard, Suter, Carle, Liles, Leopold, E. Johnson, J. Johnson, Gleason, Orpik, Whitney, Preissing, Corvo, Niskanen, Gilbert, Chorney, Pothier, Lebda, Alberts, Stuart, Lashoff.

Forwards:

Blake, Cole, Drury, Higgins, Eaves, Kessel, O'Sullivan, Brown, Stafford, Malone, Legwand, Ryan, Kane, Schremp, Callahan, Cullen, Rolston, Stempniak, Grier, Pavelski, Skille, Stastny, Arnason, Kesler, Schremp, Oshie, Gomez, Gionta, Parise, Langenbrunner, Dubinsky, Umberger, Okposo, Lewis, Mueller, Connolly.

Not all of those guys are American. Actually, a lot of them aren't.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

Not all of those guys are American. Actually, a lot of them aren't.

Name ONE.

 

[therealdeal]

Name ONE.

I couldn't see any.

The thing about Team USA is that I don't see any superstars on the teams named so far, and I think thats a good thing. You really only need one, and probably in the next 3 years one of these players will be. I feel like with teams like Canada and Russia there are too many cooks in the kitchen. There needs to be a #1 player in every position, and everyone should fall in line behind that person.

 

[Nash]

The thing about Team USA is that I don't see any superstars on the teams named so far, and I think thats a good thing. You really only need one, and probably in the next 3 years one of these players will be. I feel like with teams like Canada and Russia there are too many cooks in the kitchen. There needs to be a #1 player in every position, and everyone should fall in line behind that person.

USNDP has done a great job developing players. I think that some of the scouting services have overhyped some of their prospects in the past few drafts. Guys like Komisarek, Nystrom, Suter, Jessiman, Stuart, Wheeler, Thelen, Ryan, Skille, and Lee were all drafted higher then they should have been. That being said, I don't think the US will suffer lack of depth in the future anymore.

Considering that the highest scoring US player this year in the NHL was a rookie (his Slovak father was the second highest scoring player in the 80's), it is not surprising that you don't see anybody considered to be a superstar right now. He was 30th in the league, Blake was 45th, Drury 46th and Rolston was 59th. This competition is 3 years away. In that time, Dipietro could challenge for a Vezina. A few of Gomez, Kessel, Kane, Stastny, Gionta and Parise will get an American above 30th in league scoring. I don't see any of the defensemen winning the Norris in that time as defensemen usually don't until they are over 25, but they should be seasoned and solid. They probably won't be considered a team that should medal, but they will be building a foundation for 2014 and with the young squad they have and playing on a North American rink, you never know, they could surprise a few skeptics.