Russe Hockey Machine Never Break: March 2016

Yesterday was the deadline for teams to announce the first sixteen players they have selected to play in the World Cup of Hockey, and the remainder of the players has to be selected by June 1. Luckily for the GM, he does not have to select younger, 18-23-year-old players, as there is Team North America for them. However, Canada is the team with the most roster depth in the world, so it is incredibly hard to choose who goes, and world-class players often get left out.

Below is the roster:

Goaltenders

Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks
Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals

Defencemen

Drew Doughty, LA Kings
Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, San Jose Sharks
Shea Weber, Nashville Predators

Forwards

Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars
Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins
Jeff Carter, Los Angeles Kings
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim Ducks
Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
John Tavares, New York Islanders
Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks

As can be seen here, the most notable commissions are PK Subban and Corey Perry, but they can be added later. However, the biggest surprise comes when seen that since all three goaltenders have been picked, Roberto Luongo is not on the list. For the first time since 2002, Luongo has been left out of a best-on-best tournament with Team Canada. In my opinion, I think he should go ahead of Corey Crawford, because he is about the same level but with more experience. He was very accepting of this and said that the GM told him that he is next on the list for an injury replacement. Here is Luongo's Twitter reaction:

Other notable omissions include Claude Giroux, Alex Pietrangelo, Kris Letang, Brent Burns, and Brent Seabrook, Taylor Hall, Matt Duchene, Joe Thornton, Tyler Toffoli, Ryan O’Reilly, Brendan Gallagher, Mark Stone, Wayne Simmonds, and Logan Couture, but again, all these could be named to the final 23-man roster.

However, Marc-Andre Fleury was another goaltender not named to Canada. They have incredible depth at that position and it was a challenge for GM Doug Armstrong to pick.

Here is the staff picking the players:

Staff

Tom Renney, President
Scott Smith, Chief Operating Officer
Scott Salmond, Hockey Operations
Doug Armstrong, General Manager
Marc Bergevin, Assistant General Manager
Rob Blake, Assistant General Manager
Ken Holland, Assistant General Manager
Bob Murray, Assistant General Manager
Mike Babcock, Head Coach
Claude Julien, Assistant Coach
Bill Peters, Assistant Coach
Joel Quenneville, Assistant Coach
Barry Trotz, Assistant Coach