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***golden_apricot*** · 11-08-2019, 09:50 AM

As a second year GM of team world I am proud to be able to announce the roster again this season. After scouring the… well World for the past season I am proud to say that we have… a team for this years tournament. We have players from all around the globe on this years roster including some from “Unassigned” which is a country somewhere in Europe I think. Despite not having the top end talent that some of the other WJC rosters might have in this years tournament, we are excited as a staff to have a talented group of players. We have hopes for this season and aim to bring a medal back to everyone’s home country.
Now for the roster announcement I typically separate the roster by position but this season that might be more difficult since there were very few actual forwards. I don’t know what it is but maybe some of these other countries don’t know how to play offense so all of their top end players are defenders, but we decided to bring the most talented prospects to this tournament and we believe that is what we have.

Goalies:
Starting with the back end we have the goalies for the world team. After loosing our bread and butter from last tournament in Manto, due to some strange visa rule that allows players to transfer nations we had to do a bit more scouting here than we initially believed. Here are the two netminders that we will be playing in this seasons tournament.

G1: @libertines Steven Vassallo: This goalie out of Japan has spent the last season as the backup for the Lions. While making only a few starting appearances and then some off the bench, Vassallo posted a 85.7% save percentage and a 2.80 GAA, which was a lower GAA than the starter in Lethbridge Tegernako. The expectations are high for the young netminder for this squad as he will likely be in net for this team in years to come.

G2: @Daichi33 Daichi Franciszek: Lets be honest with this pickup, we were scraping the bottom of the barrel. Yes Daichi has strong upside but his inexperience will hurt him in this tournament. Yet to play a game in the juniors, Daichi has a lot to do in order to impress scouts prior to the start of his draft in a few weeks and this tournament might be the time and place for him to do that. Will he show up and show out for the world team? We will know in only a short few weeks.

Skaters:

Like I mentioned above we have a lack of forwards in the world so this team is built on a strongish defensive core. Will these guys be playing out of position? Yes. Will it hurt the team? For sure. But we hope that with good coaching and some luck the puck might fall our way a time or two and we could still challenge for a medal.

S1: @Randominoe Espen Knutsen Jr.: One of two Norwegians on the roster this year (sad I know) Espen played this last season in Detroit where he put up 26 points. We will see how he is able to hold up this year after the beating he took in the regular season, notching 100 hits taken. The expectations are not sky high for this guy but who knows what will happen one the skates hit the ice in the tournament. The staff hopes that the -7 in the +/- category can be fixed for the WJC.

S2: @bvgf Alec Sullivan: Another player who did not spend anytime in the SMJHL this last season. Some might say he is washed up, a never has been but we believe in the Australian. Although there is literally no history of Aussies being good at the old hockey game, we think that Sully can make an impact on a lot of rosters and he will be a big time impact player for this world team in the tournament. He will play solid 4th line minutes to start and we will see how his legs adjust.

S3: @uhh Hariken Urawa: Uhh this guy is kinda good we think. The Japanese forward will be a center piece for this roster in the upcoming WJC. He was a force for Colorado this last season with 35 points and over 20 goals. Will we be relying on him to continue this play into the WJC? Yes, but we believe that he can and will do that for us. Also the +12 on the season tells you that he puts effort forward on both ends of the ice which might be required with some of the high powered teams out there this season.

S4: @TML99 Yamamoto Mitsuharu: Another man from the land of the rising sun, Mitsuharu had an exceptional yer for the ‘crows in St. Louis where he notched 40 points. Much more of a passer than a scoere the team hopes that he can up the goal per game numbers for this tournament as the rest of the offense might not be as strong as those other teams out there. The -5 is something the staff has been looking to improve in practice as we believe that our play in our own end will determine how far this team is able to go in this years WJC.

S5: @ByrdeMan Rintarou Okabe: Okabe, another Japanese young gun, is going to make the team again this season after performing well last season. In Lethbridge he notched 23 points this season. Not the best scorer Okabe’s presence will be felt in the faceoff circle where he will be expected to help the team get possession in the 50/50 chances. A -10 player in the season, we hope his performances will be a bit better for the world team, but time will tell if this selection was the correct one.

S6: @JaysFan26 Jay Reeves: From the land of Unassigned comes Jay Reeves (I still have no idea where this country is, does not show up on the map when I search for it, assuming its in Europe). Jay played this last season in Anchorage where she put up an impressive 37 points split down the middle between goals and assists. Jay will be a key contributor to the scoring for team world this tournament and we look forward to her being someone who will play big minutes for this squad that might be lacking depth compared to some of the other countries.

S7: @ThatDamnWalrus Dario Medici: The Italian forward played this last season in Vancover where he put up a lowly 6 points and averaged 14 minutes per game. The coaching staff for team world is looking for him to soak up some solid minutes out there and maybe contribute some on the offensive side of the puck. Although he did not contribute much offensively, a -7 with only 6 points means that he didn’t hurt the team too much in his own end so the staff hopes that that carries over to the WJC

S8: @TheWoZy Satoshi Zizagooney: The first of many defensemen on this roster, Zizagooney is a Japanese player who most recently played for the Falcons in DET. He put up an impressive 31 points from the blue line this year, second on his team and we hope that this kind of contribution translates over to this new roster. We are excited to have him on the roster and look forward so him being one of our top contributors this WJC. We might be seeing him play on the wing too so be on the lookout for that.

S9: @"スウェグキング" Disisde Dayudie: Another Japanese defenseman on this roster, Disisde played this last season in Lethbridge, where he was second on the team in scoring with an impressive 12 goals and 19 helpers to go with it. Like the other high scoring defensemen on this roster, we might be playing Disisde on the wing due to a lack of forward depth, but we expect that his scoring touch from the blue line will translate well to the offensive end of the ice.

S10: @Velevra Akira Ren: Ren, another Japanese defenseman from Lethbridge, had a rough go this last season with a -15 rating and only 21 points. We were looking for better from him this season to be honest and hope that the slump he was in this season does not translate over to the WJC. Again for depth reasons we don’t know when or where he will play, but he will get his time on the ice as one of our top players. Expectations are high and we will see how he lives up to them as the tournament unfolds.

S11: @golden_apricot Samuel Michaud: This American born, Norwegian international defenseman most recently played for the Armada in the SMJHL where he had an okay season, notching 29 points from 28 assists and a single goal, as well as being a +9 player on the year. Will he be spending a bunch of time in the box this season? Probably, but if he can keep it clean he might be the rock this team needs in the back end as the team might try to win a lot of low scoring games this WJC.

S12: @thebigschnoz Zbigniew Pokrywka: Playing for the newly relocated Kraken, Zbigniew had a modest year offensively but was another rock at the back. With a +9 rating this season the staff is hoping that his defensive strengths help out a team that again, might be sitting on their heels for a good portion of the tournament. With only 17 points, Pokrywka might not be the best in the offensive end of the ice, but in a tournament like this anything can happen.

S13: @Grum Nicholas Owens: As a rookie for the outlaws this season, Owens put up a highly impressive 21 points and 5 goals. He is known for his ability to take the body, with 75 hits this season. He also makes plays in his own end with over 60 blocked shots this season. Owens will be a great asset for the world team and should bump his draft stock this WJC by playing with new guys and in all likelihood, being a dominant force.

S14: @Chad D Alesky Franciszek: This guy is going to play sparing minutes for us if we are honest. Coming from Poland, he is one of a few of these twins, but has yet to play a junior game and likely will be a hindrance for the squad over an asset. Maybe in his four minutes per game he might get a goal or an assits but who knows at this point.

S15: @iOBESE Danila Zhernov: The Ukrainian make an appearance again for the world team after being a contributor last year as well. Danila played for the Knights this last season and put up 13 points. Danila is a back end presence more than a scoring threat and that is shown with the 50 blocked shots this last season. Again expect that the back end is the strength of this team in the WJC and we hope that Danila gets in the shot lanes just as often now as in the regular season.

S16/17 @ItssYoBoiDaLegend @Fizzy Ryszard Franciszek/Jebany Franciszek: Two more prospects that came in late to the game, we expect that these twins will play some minutes, but don’t be shocked if they see more bench than ice time. We hope that they will be able to contribute some in a positive light when they see the ice but at this point we are not expecting much from them considering their age. If they are the breakout players that some expect them to be in the J next season, you might get a sneak peak in this years WJC.

S18: @AlwaysGettingHaxed Kalevolaripaavo Käspertommevisnapuu: Again like last year I refuse to spell this name more than I have to.so we are going with “this guy” for the remainder of this announcement. This guy played his last season in Kelowna scoring an impressive 17 times and adding 24 assists for a total of 41 points. The +7 rating means that this guy will be a solid contributor on both ends of the ice and the added 56 hits means that you might not want to skate in open ice when this guy is out there. He will likely see some first line minutes for the world team so expect big things for this LAP prospect.

That is the roster for team world. Although not as strong as Canada and some of the other larger nations, after searching the world we are sure that we came up with the strongest roster that we could and are expecting that this team at the very lest makes it to the medal round of this season world junior championships.

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