Vladislav Tretiak, former standout goalie for Russia, has decided to make the Olympic selection process a whole lot more interesting. Yesterday, speaking in Montreal after watching the Capitals and Habs, announced that the Russian team would consist of a mixture of NHL and KHL players. That’s not the shocking part. Tretiak also said that he figures it’ll be about 50/50 (or 12 from each); that’s the shocking part.
You have to figure that the goaltending corps will be made up of NHL players; there are far too many quality Russians tending NHL nets for it to be otherwise. Evgeni Nabokov will lead the charge in goal, with either Semyon Varlamov or Ilya Bryzgalov backing him up and the other sitting in the press box.
Assuming that’s right, it means that the skaters would be split between NHL and KHL players in the neighbourhood of 9/12. I’m far from an expert on the KHL, so I’m not sure about the quality of players there. But there are a few things I’d like to point out from TSN’s KHL Player Rankings.
1. Fringe NHL players like Mattias Weinhandl, Patrick Thoresen, Marcel Hossa, and Kevin Dallman are all in the top 15.
2. Alexei Yashin is the 3rd highest ranked player.
3. 2 North American goalies (Jeff Glass and Robert Esche) who I’m certain would rather be playing in the NHL, are in the top 7.
There are certainly some elite talents amongst the league’s scoring leaders, Yashin included. Alexander Radulov sits 3rd with 32 points in 27 games. Alexei Morozov has 31 points in 26 games. Beyond that, there’s certainly not a lot of names that I recognize (not ones that are eligible at least, as Jaromir Jagr and Jiri Hudler are both doing well, but neither are Russian).
The crux of the matter here is whether or not the Russians would be doing themselves a disservice by attempting to fill their rosters from both leagues. Anytime you set out to name what amounts to an all-start with a caveat other than “I’m going to take the best players available”, you’re setting yourself up for some potential trouble.
As for this Russian team, beyond Radulov, Morozov, and Sergei Zubov, the potential Olympians are certainly light on NHL experience. It wouldn’t be a big deal in the 2014 Olympics, to be played on international-sized ice in Moscow, but would put those players at a severe disadvantage on the smaller ice surface in Vancouver.