World Cup of Hockey final rosters are being released today. So far, Finland, Russia, and the Czech Republic have named their final rosters, and a few Dallas Stars join their ranks.
Team Finland named Esa Lindell, a Dallas Stars prospect, as one of their selections on defense. It’s not a complete shock, as he was named one of the defensemen on their preliminary rosters released earlier this year. However, it is still quite an accomplishment that Lindell has made the team’s roster without much NHL experience. It speaks to the quality of his play at international tournaments in the past and reaffirms the notion most have that Lindell will slot into the Dallas Stars’ defense corps out of training camp next season.
Also of interest, ex-Star Jyrki Jokipakka was also named a defensemen for Team Finland’s roster. Jokipakka was the roster player sent to the Calgary Flames in the trade deadline acquisition of pending unrestricted free agent Kris Russell.
The Czech Republic named two forwards of the Dallas Stars to their World Cup of Hockey roster. Ales Hemsky is not a surprising addition as he is one of the highest profile NHL players from the country currently in the league. What could be considered a surprise is the addition of Radek Faksa, who’s strong two-way game down the stretch of the season and in the post-season for the Dallas Stars was one of the highlights of the season.
Team Russia also announced their roster in the early morning hours of Friday morning. Valeri Nichushkin, who had played on Russia’s Olympic team two years ago, was not named as one of their roster players. Russia has quite a talent pool to draw from at forward, and Nichushkin is still trying to find his game after a hip surgery kept him out of the NHL lineup for nearly the entire season last year. It’s not an unsurprising omission from their final roster and hopefully it helps add some motivation to Nichushkin’s game next season.
Russia’s roster is brewing up controversy, however; not for who they don’t have but who they do have named. Slava Voynov, who was suspended by the league because of domestic violence charges he faced two years ago, was named as a defensemen on the final roster. The NHL is co-sponsoring the World Cup of Hockey and stated that they would have to review his status with the NHLPA. The league could decide that his suspension applies for this event. It’s an interesting developing situation to keep an eye on.
The remainder of the World Cup of Hockey rosters are anticipated to be released at the following times Friday, May 27th:
- Sweden – 10 AM CST
- Europe – 5:09 PM CST
- USA – 5:13 PM CST
- North America – 5:16 PM CST
- Canada – 5:22 PM CST