Predicting the men’s ice hockey rosters for the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Since missing out on the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, the NHL has agreed with the IOC to return to the Olympics for the upcoming 2022 Games in Beijing. After long negotiations, hockey fans across the world will now be able to watch the best of the best compete for their respective countries come next February.
Here are my predictions for some of the more NHL-laden rosters.
Sweden | Russia | Finland | Canada | USA
*My Sweden prediction was done while we were still at Rink Royalty.
Russia
Even though the NHL couldn’t make its way to Pyeongchang in 2018, the KHL could. And with a lot of talented Russians playing in the KHL at the time, the roster Russia sent to South Korea was full of superstar talent.
Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk, Kirill Kaprizov, and Nikita Gusez comprised a Russian squad that quite easily made its way through some of the lesser talented teams among them to go on to win a Gold Medal.
Now that the NHL is back in the fold, Russia will be allowed to add on to some of that talent back in 2018.
Forwards
|
Alex Ovechkin |
Evgeni Malkin | Nikita Kucherov |
|
Artemi Panarin |
Vadim Shipachyov |
Alexander Radulov |
|
Kirill Kaprizov |
Pavel Datsyuk |
Valeri Nichuskin |
|
Vladimir Tarasenko |
Vladislav Namestnikov |
Pavel Buchnevich |
|
Andrei Svechnikov |
Ilya Kovalchuk |
The wealth of skill and superstar ability afforded to Russia on the wings upfront will rival Team Canada or Team USA.
There should be no problem scoring with a left side of Ovechkin, Panarin, Kaprizov, and Tarasenko. The question that will need to be answered is who will do more of the ‘dirty’ work on this talented roster, like kill penalties.
Defense
|
Mikhail Sergachev |
Nikita Zadorov |
|
Slava Voynov |
Vladislov Gavrikov |
|
Dimitry Orlov |
Nikita Zadorov |
|
Ivan Provorov |
Alex Romanov |
The defense will be a big question mark for the Russian squad. Not that it isn’t skilled, it’s just some rivals will be able to ice a better group.
Mikhail Sergachev should eat a lot of minutes, but the depth here could be an issue. Slava Voynov, even though still banned from the NHL, was an asset for Team Russia in 2018, leading the team in minutes played in their Gold Medal-winning game and should return for 2022.
Goalies
|
Andrei Vasilevskiy |
|
Semyon Varlamov |
With a goalie like Andrei Vasilevskiy in the net, a former Vezina Trophy recipient, and reigning Conn Smythe winner, there is always a possibility to win games. Vasilevskiy is one of the best in the world, and Beijing will be a prime opportunity for him to embody that championship skill even more.