Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Juniors in the NHL

Just thinking about the potential World Junior rosters here and it occurred to me that there's a lot of potential WJC talent in the NHL right now that we might not see at the WJC's in Ottawa. By my count, there are 14 players currently in the NHL who are still eligible to play the World Juniors:

Canada:
Josh Bailey (NY Islanders)
Drew Doughty (Los Angeles)
Sam Gagner (Edmonton)
Colton Gillies (Minnesota)
Luke Schenn (Toronto)
Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay)
Brandon Sutter (Carolina)
Kyle Turris (Phoenix)

USA:
Zach Bogosian (Atlanta)

Sweden:
Oscar Moller (Los Angeles)

Czech Republic:
Jakub Voracek (Columbus)

Russia:
Nikita Filatov (Columbus) - actually in Syracuse (AHL) at the moment

Switzerland: (Switzerland is in the B-pool WJCs Dec 14-20, not the A-pool)
Luca Sbisa (Philadelphia)

Denmark: (Denmark is in the B-pool WJCs Dec 15-21, not the A-pool)
Mikkel Boedker (Phoenix)

I'd say there's no chance of Sbisa or Boedker being released by their teams since those guys are playing regular shifts for their NHL clubs, and because it's the B-pool where the calibre of hockey is far, far below the NHL.

USA isn't going to get Bogosian because he has a broken leg. And Moller, Voracek, Doughty, Gagner, Schenn, and Sutter aren't going anywhere because they are playing regular shifts for the NHL teams. Stamkos won't play for Canada because he skipped Canada's summer camp this year and by Hockey Canada's rules that makes him ineligible for the main tournament.

That leaves Bailey, Gillies, Turris, and Filatov as the only players with a chance to be released....and I'd say the chances of Bailey or Turris getting loaned to Team Canada are pretty slim. So Gillies might be the only one of the 8 Canadian teenagers in the NHL to be freed up to play at the World Juniors.

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