I’ll admit it. I’m bored. Since the Tampa Bay Lightning exited the playoffs early, there hasn’t been a lot to do. There was the draft. There were some trades. There were some signings. As I write this, Brayden Point still hasn’t signed yet. It’s been a long offseason. I’m ready for October and I’m bored.

The World Cup of Hockey took place in 2016. It was meant to be an Olympics style tournament for half way between Olympic cycles. The players went along with it assuming that the NHL would allow players to play in the Olympics in 2018. Well, that didn’t happen. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that the 2020 edition got canceled. That’s at least in part due to the likelihood of a lock out after the NHLPA and/or NHL opts out of the CBA prior to the 2020-21 season.

But what if the World Cup of Hockey was happening this year? What Lightning players would we expect to see playing? Let’s have a little fun with this. We’ll use the same teams and rules as the 2016 World Cup of Hockey used. We’ll have teams for Canada, United States, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Europe, and North America.

Canada

Locks: Steven Stamkos

Maybes: None

Team Canada is stacked. There’s no way around that. They are one of the largest and deepest hockey playing nations on the planet. And probably have the strongest center group as well. But Stamkos is more than qualified for this group. He was the fifth highest scoring Canadian in the NHL last year. He’s won two Rocket Richard Trophies. Maybe he moves to the wing for Team Canada, but he’s definitely on the roster. He was also on the roster for the 2016 squad, but only recorded a goal and two points in six games winning a Gold Medal.

United States

Locks: Ryan McDonagh

Maybes: Tyler Johnson

McDonagh also played on the (awful) Team USA squad last time around with two goals in three games. He does have some competition for the spot, but I think his experience and his defensive abilities lead him to a roster spot. He also participated in the 2014 Sochi Olympics for Team USA.

Johnson though has a tougher road to make it onto the team. He was 27th among American forwards last year in scoring in the NHL. He was also left off of the 2016 WCoH squad as he just didn’t quite measure up to some of the grittier forwards Team USA picked instead. The one thing that could go for him though is that he’s a center, and Team USA is a bit light at center.

Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, and Dylan Larkin are the top three American centers in the NHL, but because they are 23 or younger right now, they would go to Team North America instead. That leaves Johnson competing with the likes of Joe Pavelski, Kevin Hayes, Brock Nelson, and Paul Stastny for a center position. All of that makes him a maybe for the United States team.

Sweden

Locks: Victor Hedman

Maybes: None

Hedman is the lone Swede left on the Lightning roster after Anton Stralman’s departure. He was on the 2016 team and surely would have been an Olympic in 2018 if the NHL owners had allowed players to go. This one is a no-brainer.

Finland

Nobody

No Finns left on the team. Last time we had Valterri Filppula, but he’s gone. Otto Somppi is the lone Finish player in the Lightning organization and he’s far from being good enough to make Team Finland’s roster.

Russia

Locks: Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Mikhail Sergachev

Maybes: None

Kucherov won the Hart and the Art Ross. Enough said. Vasilevskiy won the Vezina. Enough said. Well, I guess I will say a little bit more on that. Vasilevskiy was the 3rd goaltender for Russia at the 2016 WCoH. Ahead of him was Sergei Bobrovskiy and Semyon Varlamov. Vasilevskiy has clearly overtaken Varlamov. Russia could still make an argument for Bobrovsky because of his experience, but really I have to think that Vasilevskiy is Russia’s #1 goaltender and hopefully he’ll get a chance to do that in the Olympics in 2022.

While Russia is completely loaded with forwards, they are severely lacking on the blue line in the NHL. They would likely bring a player or two for the blue line from the KHL, but Sergachev is one of the best NHLers available. Dmitri Orlov is getting older, but is still pretty decent. Ivan Provorov is a great young defenseman. But after that, it gets pretty sketchy. No Russian defenseman had more points last year than Sergachev and only Provorov beat him (by just one point) the year before. Sergachev has to make the team.

Czech Republic

Locks: Ondrej Palat, Jan Rutta

Palat played for the team in 2016 and was also an Olympian in 2014 for Team Czech Republic. The Czech Republic only had 38 players appear in the NHL last season. Even though he dealt with injury issues, Palat still finished 6th among Czech players in points in the NHL. He’s still got value there.

At first, I had Rutta as a maybe. But then I looked at the defensemen available in the NHL. Mihal Kempny. Filip Hronek. Radko Gudas. Roman Polak. Other than that, there’s not much there in the NHL. Libor Hajek could get a spot as a youngster, but it still leaves plenty of room for Rutta to make the team as a third pair guy.

Europe

Locks: Erik Cernak

Fellow Slovakians Zdeno Chara and Christian Jaros are likely making it onto the roster. Roman Josi is the obvious number one. Mirco Muller and Yannick Weber could possibly make it on there. But Cernak broke out in a big way last year. He put up more points than any of those players outside of Josi. It’s not hard to see him earning a spot now.

Team North America

Locks: Brayden Point

Maybe: Anthony Cirelli

Team North America was stacked last time with future stars and it still would be in 2019. Connor McDavid. Mitch Marner. Jack Eichel. Matthew Tkachuk. Alex DeBrincat. Auston Matthews. Dylan Larkin. Kyle Connor. Max Domi. But I think Brayden Point certainly can find a spot in there. He might move to the wing because of McDavid, Eichel, and Matthews and so that he can play a higher up role than as the fourth line center.

Anthony Cirelli I would consider a big dark horse to make it. He’d be a guy that would fit well as the fourth line center on this team since he’d bring a two-way game and could fit well on the penalty kill. But there’s also just so many good forwards here. A ton. For him to make the team, it probably means a very well deserving and capable offensive forward, or two, or three, or four, go left off the team.

Conclusions

Ain’t the offseason fun? It’s a great time for doing what-ifs like this, or like the draft mulligan series I’ve been doing. There’s not a lot going on with just little bursts of activity here and there. This is all just a thought exercise. A fun thing to do. But seriously… is it October yet?