World Junior no shows - updated

[JimboA]

Elias Lindholm was at the WJC in Malmö 2014. Hampus wasn't though

And if I remember correctly, Zibanejad wasn't released to Ufa 2013 even though he was in the minors at the time (the lockout season). I don't remember the details. That was the same year RNH was released.

 

[JackSlater]

Elias Lindholm was at the WJC in Malmö 2014. Hampus wasn't though

And if I remember correctly, Zibanejad wasn't released to Ufa 2013 even though he was in the minors at the time (the lockout season). I don't remember the details. That was the same year RNH was released.

Thanks for the update. I think that I missed Zibanejad because eliteprospects notes that he played 5 junior games that year for Sweden, but I didn't notice that those games were not at the WJC.

I will update the thread for this year's edition of the tournament shortly since the NHL roster freeze has set in. Once again if anyone has updates or finds an error in my information, please let me know. A reminder though - I'm not looking for players who were injured (like McDavid in 2016) as it would be too difficult to do this for every edition of the tournament.

 

[xIsle]

I think you can add Aleksi Saarela for Finland this year. He declined the invitation.

 

[JackSlater]

I think you can add Aleksi Saarela for Finland this year. He declined the invitation.

Only if his team pressured him to refuse. I didn't put Mario Lemieux down for 1984 when he refused the invite.

 

[snipes]

Thanks for doing this Jackie.

Pretty crazy the amount of players missing this year. Good sign for the future of the NHL with this much young talent sticking around on the big squads.

 

[JackSlater]

Thanks for doing this Jackie.

Pretty crazy the amount of players missing this year. Good sign for the future of the NHL with this much young talent sticking around on the big squads.

This year does seem noteworthy. 2017 has the highest number of players missing due to senior level commitments since 1985, and the third most ever.

 

[snipes]

This year does seem noteworthy. 2017 has the highest number of players missing due to senior level commitments since 1985, and the third most ever.

Yeah I noticed that, and also the first time 6 countries have had at least one player missing.

 

[JackSlater]

Yeah I noticed that, and also the first time 6 countries have had at least one player missing.

True, that is a positive. This year also looks like a very positive sign for USA. The last time USA was missing a significant amount of players regularly (mid to late 1980s) it foreshadowed the strongest generation of players they ever produced.

 

[snipes]

True, that is a positive. This year also looks like a very positive sign for USA. The last time USA was missing a significant amount of players regularly (mid to late 1980s) it foreshadowed the strongest generation of players they ever produced.

Yup. Even for the Finns, to be missing those forwards I think is the first time that many? Haven't double checked.

The NHL is definitely in a transition period with the Crosby/Ovi era giving way to this new era of players like McDavid/Matthews/Eichel/Laine, etc.

2022 should be an exciting Olympics.

 

[MNRube]

Hanifin is young. Wow.

 

[Statsy]

What this all tells me is that in the 1980's and early 1990's, before the large-scale infusion of better European competition, there were a lot of 18-year olds, many less than star players, who were playing in the NHL. Once the Europeans started arriving, the number of junior-aged players was drastically reduced.

Yes, we talk about all these current teenage NHL'ers like it's a new thing, but it does appear to have been even more prevalent back in the day.

 

[Statsy]

Damn, look at the guys missing from the 1985 team!

 

[JackSlater]

I have updated this thread for the 2018 tournament. Now that Nylander has been released to Sweden I don't think that there are any more players who may or may not miss the tournament due to professional commitments. As before, if there are any mistakes this year or for previous years please let me know and I will be happy to update. Over the last few weeks I skimmed through some previous years and added several players that missed tournaments in the early 90s and the 80s, so I suspect that there are still some players out there.

One reminder is that the list does not include players who missed the tournament due to injury, regardless of whether they were in the NHL or not. I don't need to be reminded that McDavid missed the 2016 tournament.

I am also curious if anyone knows what the situation was with Mathieu Schneider in 1989, Kevin Hatcher in 1985 and Craig Janney in 1987. All three were Americans who would have been returning players and keys to their respective teams, all seem to have been relatively healthy and yet none of them played in those years. They were all in junior or NCAA so it wasn't the NHL that kept them out, so I am curious if they refused to play. I know that Lemieux famously refused to play for Canada in 1984 (and there were other lesser Canadians who did the same in some early years) and I think that Lafontaine might have done the same in 1983, so it was somewhat common at that time. Any recollection is appreciated.

 

[Lempo]

is it really growing in popularity in some parts of Europe? I have my doubts.

Yes. The recent success has seen it that that a plenty of games will be televized in public service channel at least in Finland despite the abysmal last year. Choice games have extremely Europe-friedly starting time, which I would guess means it's less than perfectly optimized for the ticket sales at the actual venue.

 

[Uncle Rotter]

I am also curious if anyone knows what the situation was with Mathieu Schneider in 1989, Kevin Hatcher in 1985 and Craig Janney in 1987. All three were Americans who would have been returning players and keys to their respective teams, all seem to have been relatively healthy and yet none of them played in those years. They were all in junior or NCAA so it wasn't the NHL that kept them out, so I am curious if they refused to play. I know that Lemieux famously refused to play for Canada in 1984 (and there were other lesser Canadians who did the same in some early years) and I think that Lafontaine might have done the same in 1983, so it was somewhat common at that time. Any recollection is appreciated.

Boston Globe (Dec 14, 1986):

Craig Janney, Boston College's star center and the Bruins' first pick in last June's draft, will be out 4-6 weeks with mononucleosis.
BC coach Len Ceglarski said after last night's 10-1 win that it was originally suspected Janney merely had the flu, which forced him to sit out last Wednesday's 4-2 win at New Hampshire. But test results yesterday revealed that Janney, who had not been feeling well for a few days, had contracted the disease.
The illness also will prevent Janney from participating on the American national team -- with teammates Brian Leetch and Greg Brown -- in the World Junior Championships to be held in Czechoslovakia during the Christmas break.

Ottawa Citizen (Dec 13, 1988)

Cornwall defenceman Mathieu Schneider, 19, from Woonsocket, R.I., second in scoring among OHL rearguards, is not expected to return to the United States national junior team.

 

[JackSlater]

Boston Globe (Dec 14, 1986):


Ottawa Citizen (Dec 13, 1988)

Nice, thanks for the information. I guess we are to infer that Schneider just refused to play in the tournament. That was definitely a more common issue in the 1980s.

 

[AmericanDream]

still pretty crazy to see that 2017 Team USA without all that talent in the NHL, and without Brock Boeser and Logan Brown (both injured or just coming back from injury) not making the team and still won the damn Gold...absolutely insane depth that group had - one of the best for any nation in the past number of years.

 

[Zippy316]

Can you add fans to the list of no-shows for the 2018 WJC?

 

[JackSlater]

Can you add fans to the list of no-shows for the 2018 WJC?

I'd first have to add that to the many tournaments that had far worse attendance.

 

[JackSlater]

I've updated the list again for the 2019 tournament as the NHL roster freeze is about to begin. If there are any errors for this year or any other just let me know. Keep in mind that I am not including players who missed the tournament solely due to injury, so no Alex Formenton or Timothy Liljegren for instance. I am assuming that Eeli Tolvanen will be released for Finland and that Urho Vaakanainen will not be healthy by the time the tournament begins. If those assumptions prove wrong then I will add those players to Finland's list for this year.

 

[Canada4Gold]

Russia be like, yeah we're missing Svechnikov but he's only 18 so he would have been a 3rd liner at best for us

I assume Vesalainen saying he doesn't want to come and rather stay in the KHL doesn't qualify him for this either?

 

[JackSlater]

Russia be like, yeah we're missing Svechnikov but he's only 18 so he would have been a 3rd liner at best for us

I assume Vesalainen saying he doesn't want to come and rather stay in the KHL doesn't qualify him for this either?

Yes I read about his refusal. I didn't include a few other refusals (Lemieux in 1984, Saarela in 2017) because I didn't hear anything about professional teams pressuring them. It could be an asterisk I suppose, but then I would need to look other refusals (there were several in the 1980s for instance) and it is difficult to research some of those situations that happened long ago.

 

[JackSlater]

I've updated the thread for the 2020 tournament. If there are any errors let me know. I am assuming that Kotkaniemi will be healthy enough to play soon but if not I will remove him.

 

[JackSlater]

I've updated this for 2021. Any mistakes that I've made from this year or a previous year can be updated if they are pointed out. I didn't include players who missed out on their chance due to covid as it is more akin to an injury than being withheld by a professional team, an that opens a whole can of worms that complicates matters significantly. There are a few iffy ones this year. I've read differing accounts of why Hughes is not there, for instance. I have to look into Seider's situation some more as from what I've seen thus far he refused to play. In the past I haven't included players who just refused without any pressure from their professional teams so we'll see in his case.

 

[Faterson]

Any mistakes that I've made from this year or a previous year can be updated if they are pointed out.

Róbert Döme and Kristián Kudroč were Slovak players, not Czech.

Thanks for these overviews.