Sprague Cleghorn
User Registered
No.1 is obviously Canada and no.2 is going to clearly be Russia. But as I see it right now, the fight for #3 is a lot murkier with the Czech Republic, USA and Sweden all having good cases. Here are the proposed rosters for each (criteria for country eligibility is which country gets the most credit for developing the player, so players like Hull, Dillon, Burch are not counted as Americans):
Czech Republic
Patrik Elias - Vaclav Nedomansky - Jaromir Jagr
Ivan Hlinka - Milan Novy - Vladimir Martinec
Jiri Holik - Bobby Holik - Jakub Voracek
Vladimir Zabrodky - David Krejci - Milan Hejduk
Frantisek Pospisil - Jan Suchy
Petr Svoboda - Jiri Bubla
Roman Hamrlik - Tomas Kaberle
Dominik Hasek
Jiri Holecek
Sweden
Markus Naslund - Peter Forsberg - Daniel Alfredsson
Henrik Zetterberg - Nicklas Backstrom - Hakan Loob
Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Mats Sundin
Mats Naslund - Sven Johansson - Kent Nilsson
Nicklas Lidstrom - Erik Karlsson
Borje Salming - Victor Hedman
Ulf Samuelsson - Lennart Svedberg
Henrik Lundqvist
Peter Lindmark
USA
Keith Tkachuk - Mike Modano - Patrick Kane
John Leclair - Pat LaFontaine - Phil Kessel
Zach Parise - Jeremy Roenick - Blake Wheeler
Tony Amonte - Doug Weight - Joe Mullen
Brian Leetch - Chris Chelios
Rod Langway - Mark Howe
Ryan Suter - Phil Housley
Frank Brimsek
Tom Barrasso
Well, after doing this it seems that I overrated the Czechs a bit. Right now they look like the clear 5th. They have by far the best goaltending, but their defense is way behind (if you use the top 60 D list on HOH, their two best D are in the 50-60 range and the rest are probably not even top 100), and their offensive depth doesn't match up with Sweden or the USA despite having the best F of the bunch.
Now to compare Sweden and the USA. Goaltending is in favor of the USA. Brimsek is a borderline top 10 G, and Barrasso is around 25th. Lundqvist is borderline top 20, and Lindmark is probably in the 40-50 range. Sweden's Cs are vastly superior (Sundin had to be moved to the RW!), but the reverse is true for the USA's RWs (Amonte moved to the left). LW looks like slight advantage to Sweden.
On D, Sweden's top pairing of Lidstrom - Karlsson is superior, but it looks like that's the only advantage Sweden has at D. USA's bottom four looks better to me.
So who do you got?
Czech Republic
Patrik Elias - Vaclav Nedomansky - Jaromir Jagr
Ivan Hlinka - Milan Novy - Vladimir Martinec
Jiri Holik - Bobby Holik - Jakub Voracek
Vladimir Zabrodky - David Krejci - Milan Hejduk
Frantisek Pospisil - Jan Suchy
Petr Svoboda - Jiri Bubla
Roman Hamrlik - Tomas Kaberle
Dominik Hasek
Jiri Holecek
Sweden
Markus Naslund - Peter Forsberg - Daniel Alfredsson
Henrik Zetterberg - Nicklas Backstrom - Hakan Loob
Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Mats Sundin
Mats Naslund - Sven Johansson - Kent Nilsson
Nicklas Lidstrom - Erik Karlsson
Borje Salming - Victor Hedman
Ulf Samuelsson - Lennart Svedberg
Henrik Lundqvist
Peter Lindmark
USA
Keith Tkachuk - Mike Modano - Patrick Kane
John Leclair - Pat LaFontaine - Phil Kessel
Zach Parise - Jeremy Roenick - Blake Wheeler
Tony Amonte - Doug Weight - Joe Mullen
Brian Leetch - Chris Chelios
Rod Langway - Mark Howe
Ryan Suter - Phil Housley
Frank Brimsek
Tom Barrasso
Well, after doing this it seems that I overrated the Czechs a bit. Right now they look like the clear 5th. They have by far the best goaltending, but their defense is way behind (if you use the top 60 D list on HOH, their two best D are in the 50-60 range and the rest are probably not even top 100), and their offensive depth doesn't match up with Sweden or the USA despite having the best F of the bunch.
Now to compare Sweden and the USA. Goaltending is in favor of the USA. Brimsek is a borderline top 10 G, and Barrasso is around 25th. Lundqvist is borderline top 20, and Lindmark is probably in the 40-50 range. Sweden's Cs are vastly superior (Sundin had to be moved to the RW!), but the reverse is true for the USA's RWs (Amonte moved to the left). LW looks like slight advantage to Sweden.
On D, Sweden's top pairing of Lidstrom - Karlsson is superior, but it looks like that's the only advantage Sweden has at D. USA's bottom four looks better to me.
So who do you got?
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