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Sweden and Finland field great WJC teams with lower hockey participation numbers than MN. Could MN field a good team if we had the appropriate training program? Who would be on this year's team if you could make one?

I believe they would certainly be competitive. Minnesota has a number of players in these tournaments now and they are some of the best players on their respective teams. They wouldn't be a whole lot different than the USA teams now. IMHO

I'd have to imagine they would lack the depth of the top teams, but would certainly be competitive with top end talent. Who knows, proper training program in place and who knows what could happen. Fun thought experiment!

For what it's worth here is some of what you would have to replace on this year's US team
Logan Brown 1st rd. #11 2016 NHL draft
Trent Frederick 1st rd. #29 2016
Max Jones 1st rd #24 2017 NHL draft
Josh Norris 1st rd. #19 2017
Kailer Yamamoto 1st rd. #22 2017
Brady Tkachuk #4 rated prospect 2018 NHL draft
Quinten Hughes #7 rated

[quote="Mite-dad"]Sweden and Finland field great WJC teams with lower hockey participation numbers than MN. Could MN field a good team if we had the appropriate training program? Who would be on this year's team if you could make one?[/quot

Or better yet, a U28 team. That would be very interesting.

WarmUpTheBus wrote:For what it's worth here is some of what you would have to replace on this year's US team
Logan Brown 1st rd. #11 2016 NHL draft
Trent Frederick 1st rd. #29 2016
Max Jones 1st rd #24 2017 NHL draft
Josh Norris 1st rd. #19 2017
Kailer Yamamoto 1st rd. #22 2017
Brady Tkachuk #4 rated prospect 2018 NHL draft
Quinten Hughes #7 rated

When you look at the facts- it would be tough to field a team like that. You wouldn't have a pile of 1st rounders for sure. I still think they would be competitive most years though.

It depends how you define competitive. Switzerland, Denmark, Belarus...

This year 10 of the 23 rostered players were from Minnesota.
http://teamusa.usahockey.com/page/show/ ... ated-roste

I think if you were to fill the other 13 spots with the best of Minnesotans (high school, juniors and younger collegians) the team would most certainly be competitive. Then again the same would be true of a team based on all players hailing from the Province of Ontario, probably even more so...

MNHockeyFan wrote:This year 10 of the 23 rostered players were from Minnesota.
http://teamusa.usahockey.com/page/show/ ... ated-roste

I think if you were to fill the other 13 spots with the best of Minnesotans (high school, juniors and younger collegians) the team would most certainly be competitive. Then again the same would be true of a team based on all players hailing from the Province of Ontario, probably even more so...

Ontario has a population of nearly 14 million, which is well over twice that of Minnesota. British Columbia would be the closest comparison to MN for Canadian provinces.

I haven’t looked up past rosters, but it seems like the representation of Minnesotans is higher this year than it has been recently.

Stang5280 wrote:Ontario has a population of nearly 14 million, which is well over twice that of Minnesota. British Columbia would be the closest comparison to MN for Canadian provinces.

Good point. I threw Ontario into the conversation because it's the No. 1 province for hockey in Canada vs. Minnesota, the No. 1 state for hockey in the U.S.

10 of the 23 American players this year were Minnesotan, definitely could.

Casey Mittelstadt led all players in scoring with 11 points and was named the tournament MVP, despite team USA finishing in third place. And Kieffer Bellows netted nine goals, breaking the American record previously held by Jeremy Roenick. Not a bad showing at all by the Minnesota boys!

Stang5280 wrote:Casey Mittelstadt led all players in scoring with 11 points and was named the tournament MVP, despite team USA finishing in third place. And Kieffer Bellows netted nine goals, breaking the American record previously held by Jeremy Roenick. Not a bad showing at all by the Minnesota boys!

Ryan Lindgren was very solid on D as well...

Wouldn't make the medal round