Jason La Rose
A quick look at the eight preliminary rosters announced for the 2016 World Cup reveals a few things. One, the world’s best will be on the ice in Toronto when the tournament faces off in mid-September. And two, this might be the best collection of hockey talent even assembled. Those two might be pretty obvious, though.
But look a little closer, and a little further into the past. More often than not, the road to the World Cup of Hockey went through the IIHF World Junior Championship.
In total, 107 of the 128 players named have the world juniors on their résumé, and they’ve combined for a very impressive collection of individual and team accomplishments.
The rosters include: 33 gold medallists (Canada leads the way with 14), eight WJC MVPs (Bergeron, Forsberg, Gibson, Kuznetsov, Malkin, Parise, Price, and Tavares), and 27 players who earned a berth on the all-star team (four goaltenders, seven defencemen, and 16 forwards).
HockeyCanada.ca has already covered Team Canada and Team North America, but what about the rest?
CZECH REPUBLIC
All 16 players on the roster have world juniors experience, although only one won gold; Tomas Plekanec helped the Czechs to the second of back-to-back world titles in 2001. Michael Frolik is one of only eight players to compete in four world juniors, and Petr Mrazek earned Best Goaltender and all-star team honours after backstopping the Czechs to a surprise quarter-final berth in 2012.
Notable WJC alumni:
MICHAEL FROLIK
2005 WJC – 7GP 3G 1A 4P (bronze medal) 2006 WJC – 6GP 0G 1A 1P 2007 WJC – 6GP 4G 2A 6P 2008 WJC – 6GP 5G 0A 5P
PETR MRAZEK
2012 WJC – 6GP 3-3-0 2.49GAA .928SV% 1SO (Best Goaltender/All-Star Team)
TOMAS PLEKANEC
2001 WJC – 7GP 1G 1A 2P (gold medal) 2002 WJC – 7GP 3G 4A 7P
EUROPE
Seven countries are represented on the Team Europe roster, and six of them have appeared at the world juniors; Mark Streit, the second-oldest of the first 128 players named (only fellow European blue-liner Zdeno Chara is older) was the only Euro to earn an individual accolade, making the all-star team almost 20 years ago, while Tomas Tatar came closest to a medal, racking up 11 points to help Slovakia finish fourth in 2009.
Notable WJC alumni:
LEON DRAISAITL
2013 WJC – 6GP 2G 4A 6P 2014 WJC – 6GP 2G 4A 6P
MARK STREIT
1996 WJC – 5GP 1G 0A 1P 1997 WJC – 6GP 2G 0A 2P (All-Star Team)
TOMAS TATAR
2009 WJC – 7GP 7G 4A 11P 2010 WJC – 6GP 3G 2A 5P
FINLAND
Three players who helped the Finns end their 16-year gold medal drought in 2014 made the cut – Esa Lindell, Rasmus Ristolainen and Teuvo Teräväinen – while nine earned at least one medal. Finland had more combined appearances than any other country, with 31; 13 of the 14 alumni played at multiple WJCs, including four – Mikael Granlund, Olli Määttä, Tuukka Rask, and Ristolainen – who played in three each.
Notable WJC alumni:
JUSSI JOKINEN
2002 WJC – 7GP 2G 6A 8P (bronze medal) 2003 WJC – 7GP 6G 2A 8P (bronze medal)
TUUKKA RASK
2005 WJC – 5GP 2-3-0 2.96GAA .902SV% 0SO 2006 WJC – 6GP 4-2-0 2.11GAA .940SV% 1SO (bronze medal/Best Goaltender/All-Star Team) 2007 WJC – 6GP 2-4-0 3.43GAA .887SV% 1SO
TEUVO TERÄVÄINEN
2013 WJC – 6GP 5G 6A 11P 2014 WJC – 7GP 2G 13A 15P (gold medal/All-Star Team)
RUSSIA
Fourteen of the 16 Russians named are world juniors alumni, and every one of them has at least one medal – 23 in all. Four members of Russia’s 2011 gold medal-winning team will be in Toronto, and Alex Ovechkin has a gold from 2003. The Russian roster also includes two MVPs (Kuznetsov and Malkin) and six all-stars, and Evgeny Kuznetsov’s nine-point game in 2012 stands as the second best in tournament history.
Notable WJC alumni:
EVGENY KUZNETSOV
2010 WJC – 6GP 2G 0A 2P 2011 WJC – 7GP 4G 7A 11P (gold medal/All-Star Team) 2012 WJC – 7GP 6G 7A 13P (silver medal/MVP/Best Forward/All-Star Team)
EVGENI MALKIN
2004 WJC – 6GP 1G 4A 5P 2005 WJC – 6GP 3G 7A 10P (silver medal) 2006 WJC – 6GP 4G 6A 10P (silver medal/MVP/Best Forward/All-Star Team)
ALEX OVECHKIN
2003 WJC – 6GP 6G 1A 7P (gold medal) 2004 WJC – 6GP 5G 2A 7P 2005 WJC – 6GP 7G 4A 11P (silver medal/Best Forward/All-Star Team)
SWEDEN
Sweden joins the Czechs as the only teams with a clean sweep of alumni – all 16 Swedes played at the world juniors. Filip Forsberg has the most impressive hardware haul, winning three medals (gold and two silver), while earning MVP and Best Forward honours and two all-star team nods, and the Sedin twins combined for 51 points (26 for Henrik, 25 for Daniel) during their three appearances at the tournament.
Notable WJC alumni:
FILIP FORSBERG
2012 WJC – 6GP 0G 1A 1P (gold medal) 2013 WJC – 6GP 3G 2A 5P (silver medal/All-Star Team) 2014 WJC – 7GP 4G 8A 12P (silver medal/MVP/Best Forward/All-Star Team)
ERIK KARLSSON
2009 WJC – 6GP 2G 7A 9P (silver medal/Best Defenceman/All-Star Team)
HENRIK SEDIN
1998 WJC – 7GP 0G 4A 4P 1999 WJC – 6GP 3G 6A 9P 2000 WJC – 7GP 4G 9A 13P
UNITED STATES
Three players on the roster – Ryan Kesler, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter – anchored the first-ever American team to win gold in 2004 (Parise was MVP in Helsinki), and John Carlson scored the OT winner in 2010 that gave the U.S. gold and denied Canada a record sixth-straight world title. Derek Stepan has the single-tournament high for points, racking up 15 while captaining the 2010 team to gold in Saskatchewan.
Notable WJC alumni:
JOHN CARLSON
2010 WJC – 7GP 3G 4A 7P (gold medal/All-Star Team)
ZACH PARISE
2003 WJC – 7GP 4G 4A 8P 2004 WJC – 6GP 5G 6A 11P (gold medal/MVP/Best Forward/All-Star Team)
RYAN SUTER
2003 WJC – 7GP 2G 1A 3P 2004 WJC – 6GP 0G 2A 2P (gold medal) 2005 WJC – 7GP 1G 7A 8P (All-Star Team)