NHL.com predicts Team Europe, Youngstars rosters

Saturday, 01.24.2015 / 6:11 PM / World Cup of Hockey 2016

By Arpon Basu and Corey Masisak - NHL.com Staff Writers

E-mail

COLUMBUS -- One of the most intriguing aspects of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey that was announced Saturday is the addition of two teams that are not representing one country in particular.

In addition to the traditional power nations of Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic, there will be a team of players from other European countries and a North American Youngstars team made up of players 23-and-under from Canada and the United States.

The exact rules to determine who will be eligible for the North American Youngstars team have not been set, but speculation on who will make that team, as well as Team Europe, will run rampant from now until the first 16 players for each of the eight teams must be named March 1, 2016.

NHL.com decided to take an initial run at predicting the rosters for the two teams. For the Youngstars team, a cutoff birth date of Sept. 18, 1992, was used because all players born after that date would still be 23 on the day the tournament starts on Sept. 17, 2016. There was also no minimum number of players that needed to be taken from Canada or the United States.

The first thing that jumps out at you about the Youngstars is the lack of quality goaltending, which could be a serious problem in a tournament like this. But otherwise, it looks like a competitive roster.

Team Europe, on the other hand, will perhaps be strongest in goal, with Jaroslav Halak of the New York Islanders, Frederik Andersen of the Anaheim Ducks and Jonas Hiller of the Calgary Flames potentially battling for the No 1 job.

The breakdown of the Team Europe roster was six players from Slovakia, five from Switzerland, four from Denmark, two each from Austria and Germany, and one player each from Belarus, Latvia, Norway and Slovenia.

The breakdown for the North American Youngstars team was 15 from Canada and eight from the United States.

Here are NHL.com's projected 23-man rosters (13 forwards, seven defensemen, three goaltenders) for Team Europe and Team North American Youngstars in the 2016 World Cup:

TEAM EUROPE

Forwards

Mikkel Boedker, Arizona Coyotes (Denmark)

Lars Eller, Montreal Canadiens (Denmark)

Marian Gaborik, Los Angeles Kings (Slovakia)

Zemgus Girgensons, Buffalo Sabres (Latvia)

Michael Grabner, New York Islanders (Austria)

Mikhail Grabovski, New York Islanders (Belarus)

Marian Hossa, Chicago Blackhawks (Slovakia)

Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings (Slovenia)

Nino Niederreiter, Minnesota Wild (Switzerland)

Frans Nielsen, New York Islanders (Denmark)