It is related to the NHL, since 99% of these players will probably be in the NHL by then. This is a raw projection of mine, am I forgetting someone?
Obviously Canada will always have the over all best team, but Sweden will have a pretty good blue line in 2018, pressuming that these guys don't attract career ending injuries or something like that.
The thread is fine. If you don't like it, then do not participate.
__________________
http://hockeygoalies.org - promoting goaltender history since 1994. DISCLAIMER: The opinions of Doctor No do not necessarily represent the opinions of goaltenders, actuaries, or mathematicians. Facts cited by Doctor No are not necessarily facts.
There will be players in the NHL by then who are only 10 now. And with the NHL increasingly becoming a young man's game, a good number of those will be stars.
Guys who are just now getting drafted into juniors will be established stars by then.
Guys like Thornton, Datsuyk and Iginla will be long retired or doing their best Chelios impressions. Guys like Getzlaf will probably be on their last contract. Including that year, Dipeitro will have 4 years left on his contract. Gordie Howe will almost certainly have passed away. Wayne Gretzky will be nearly 60. Bobby Hull will be a year short of 80.
There will be established players in the league who have no memory of the Winnipeg Jets, Nordiques, or Whalers. Many of them will not have even been born when those teams left. The leafs will have celebrated the 50th anniversary of their last cup win the prior year. The blue Jackets will have existed for the entire life of the 18 year olds being drafted.
I'm going to go ahead and say it's way, way too early.
It's not just under 23-24. It's as low as (or lower than) 16. That means you're asking not only which current NHLers will be on the team, we have to look at guys as far back as 1st year junior and project if they will be NHL superstars in 8 years. For example, 8 years ago Crosby was 13 playing in peewee (don't think he had moved ahead a group yet at that point). Carter and Nash were 16 just starting junior. Phaneuf just joined Red Deer. Fleury was starting his 2nd year in junior (had a good year. Had Mooseheads season tickets and saw a lot of him) Getzlaf and Richards weren't even in junior yet. Toews was in elementary school... I could go on.
If it was that easy, there would be a lot more success in the drafts.
Can anyone come close to the players availible to Canada
Players from the orientation camp that could still be possibilities (with ages, although I did this quickly and some players will be younger due to the Olympics being in the 2nd month of the year):
Roberto Luongo - 39
Marc-Andre Fleury - 32
Steve Mason - 29
Cam Ward - 34
Jay Bouwmeester - 35
Brent Burns - 33
Drew Doughty - 29
Mike Green - 33
Dion Phaneuf - 33
Duncan Keith - 35
Brent Seabrook - 33
Marc Staal - 31
Shea Weber - 33
Sidney Crosby - 31
Ryan Getzlaf - 33
Jeff Carter - 33
Milan Lucic - 30
Cory Perry - 33
Mike Richards - 33
Rick Nash - 34
Eric Staal - 34
Jordan Staal - 30
Jonathan Toews - 30
Vincent Lecavalier - 38
Dany Heatley - 37
Joe Thornton - 39
Obviously these players will decline with age and many won't be Olympic calibre in 2018.
There will be players in the NHL by then who are only 10 now. And with the NHL increasingly becoming a young man's game, a good number of those will be stars.
Guys who are just now getting drafted into juniors will be established stars by then.
Guys like Thornton, Datsuyk and Iginla will be long retired or doing their best Chelios impressions. Guys like Getzlaf will probably be on their last contract. Including that year, Dipeitro will have 4 years left on his contract. Gordie Howe will almost certainly have passed away. Wayne Gretzky will be nearly 60. Bobby Hull will be a year short of 80.
There will be established players in the league who have no memory of the Winnipeg Jets, Nordiques, or Whalers. Many of them will not have even been born when those teams left. The leafs will have celebrated the 50th anniversary of their last cup win the prior year. The blue Jackets will have existed for the entire life of the 18 year olds being drafted.
I'm going to go ahead and say it's way, way too early.
There will be players in the NHL by then who are only 10 now. And with the NHL increasingly becoming a young man's game, a good number of those will be stars.
Guys who are just now getting drafted into juniors will be established stars by then.
Guys like Thornton, Datsuyk and Iginla will be long retired or doing their best Chelios impressions. Guys like Getzlaf will probably be on their last contract. Including that year, Dipeitro will have 4 years left on his contract. Gordie Howe will almost certainly have passed away. Wayne Gretzky will be nearly 60. Bobby Hull will be a year short of 80.
There will be established players in the league who have no memory of the Winnipeg Jets, Nordiques, or Whalers. Many of them will not have even been born when those teams left. The leafs will have celebrated the 50th anniversary of their last cup win the prior year. The blue Jackets will have existed for the entire life of the 18 year olds being drafted.
I'm going to go ahead and say it's way, way too early.
It's not just under 23-24. It's as low as (or lower than) 16. That means you're asking not only which current NHLers will be on the team, we have to look at guys as far back as 1st year junior and project if they will be NHL superstars in 8 years. For example, 8 years ago Crosby was 13 playing in peewee (don't think he had moved ahead a group yet at that point). Carter and Nash were 16 just starting junior. Phaneuf just joined Red Deer. Fleury was starting his 2nd year in junior (had a good year. Had Mooseheads season tickets and saw a lot of him) Getzlaf and Richards weren't even in junior yet. Toews was in elementary school... I could go on.
If it was that easy, there would be a lot more success in the drafts.
Canada
Some Forwards
Tavares
Stamkos
Hall
Duchene
Toews
Getzlaf
Crosby
Richards
Hodgson
Carter
Perry
Players that will be older and probably will be on the decline but could still make the team
Thorton
Luongo
Heatley
Lecaviler
Nash
E.Staal
Keith
Bouwmester
Defenceman
Doughty
Burns
Green
Seabrook
Phanuef
Weber
Staal
Schenn
Cowan
The thread is fine. If you don't like it, then do not participate.
Wow, I never thought I'd see the day
Tx.
On topic.
As for defence and goalie, Sweden will probably/hopefully be as good as it gets - on par, or perhaps even better than Canada. But on the forward side, it looks a little weaker.
Ofcourse, junior talents within the next 5 years can possibly make the Olympic teams 2018, and hopefully we'll have some coming there.
Way way way way way too early to try and predict it. I would guess you get max 25% of them right anyway. Players get injured, don't pan out, come out of the woodwork. It is just too much time to predict
Way way way way way too early to try and predict it. I would guess you get max 25% of them right anyway. Players get injured, don't pan out, come out of the woodwork. It is just too much time to predict
You only have to work with what you know, and since most people don't have a clue about players younger than about 16 years old - we can basically work with players between 16-25, and base a team from that.
Ofcourse noone can predict exactly what the teams will be, but we can talk about how they can be based on what we know today.
And barring injuries, we know that some players will be on the team.
