It is official: The NHL, NHL Players’ Association and International Ice Hockey Federation have announced there will be NHL players at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. We had three NHL.com writers select the team they would take to Sochi for each of the “big seven” hockey-playing nations. Note: This is not the team the writers project each country’s hockey federation will select, but the team they would select at this point.
The Russians are the host nation and will be under tremendous pressure to win this tournament. Not only are the Winter Olympics in Russia for the first time, and with hockey as the marquee sport in the country, but the salty memories of being rocked by Canada in the quarterfinals in Vancouver four years ago remain.
Russia has not won gold in the Olympics; the Soviet Union won seven times and the Unified Team won in 1992, but the drought is at five Games and counting. In fact, Russia has medaled twice — one silver, one bronze — in the past five Olympics, four with NHL players involved.
Of all the “big seven” hockey nations, Russia might have the toughest roster to project. Precedent says there will be surprises, and the Kontinental Hockey League will be represented heavily. Ilya Kovalchuk‘s recent return to the KHL will make him the best of the non-NHL players.
The strength of the Russian squad will be the same as it was in Vancouver: a talented collection of world-class forwards. The top six — all named on all three NHL.com rosters: Kovalchuk, Pavel Datsyuk, Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Alexander Radulov and Evgeni Malkin — could be terrifying on the big ice surface. Two others were named on all three rosters: Artem Anisimov and Nikolai Kulemin.
The weaknesses also remain the same: a lack of elite talent on defense and general uncertainty in net. Three defensemen on each roster — Andrei Markov, Fedor Tyutin and rising star Slava Voynov — are solid, but the rest of the group could be exposed by the elite forwards likely to play in the tournament.
Sergei Bobrovsky won the Vezina Trophy, the first Russian to do so. So does that make him the favorite to start in Sochi? It should, but Ilya Bryzgalov and Semyon Varlamov could be in the mix. None of the three NHL.com writers have the No. 1 goalie from 2010, Evgeni Nabokov, on the team.
Here are the projected rosters for Russia:
Projected Russia Olympic roster
Corey Masisak
Slava Malamud
Brian Compton
FORWARDS
Artem Anisimov
Artem Anisimov
Artem Anisimov
Pavel Datsyuk
Pavel Datsyuk
Pavel Datsyuk
Ilya Kovalchuk
Denis Kokarev
Mikhail Grigorenko
Nikolai Kulemin
Ilya Kovalchuk
Ilya Kovalchuk
Evgeni Kuznetsov
Nikolai Kulemin
Nikolai Kulemin
Evgeni Malkin
Evgeni Malkin
Evgeni Malkin
Sergei Mozyakin
Alex Ovechkin
Vladislav Namestnikov
Alex Ovechkin
Alexander Perezhogin
Alex Ovechkin
Alexander Radulov
Alexander Popov
Kirill Petrov
Alexander Semin
Alexander Radulov
Alexander Radulov
Vladimir Tarasenko
Alexander Semin
Alexander Semin
Viktor Tikhonov
Sergei Soin
Vladimir Tarasenko
Nail Yakupov
Alexei Tereschenko
Nail Yakupov
DEFENSEMEN
Alexei Emelin
Alexei Emelin
Alexei Emelin
Andrei Markov
Dmitry Kulikov
Dmitry Kulikov
Yevgeny Medvedev
Andrei Markov
Andrei Markov
Ilya Nikulin
Yevgeny Medvedev
Nikita Nikitin
Fedor Tyutin
Ilya Nikulin
Fedor Tyutin
Anton Volchenkov
Fedor Tyutin
Anton Volchenkov
Slava Voynov
Slava Voynov
Slava Voynov
GOALIES
Konstantin Barulin
Konstantin Barulin
Sergei Bobrovsky
Sergei Bobrovsky
Sergei Bobrovsky
Ilya Bryzgalov
Semyon Varlamov
Semyon Varlamov
Semyon Varlamov