US/Canada to field combined North American Youngsters team at next World Cup of Hockey

Submitted by justingoblue on

Sponsored by the NHL, the NHLPA, USA Hockey and Hockey Canada, the North American Youngsters will field the best U23 Americans and Canadians next summer in Toronto. I love the idea, but team chemestry coming off younger international rivalries and lacking a single national identity will be interesting to say the least.

Details will be hammered out amongst the four parties in July, and leadership is expected to go to dual citizens (you could certainly do worse than a Jon Cooper and Stan Bowman tandem).

New news.
Some background.

Edit: Misread the original announcement h/t to wlubd. There will be an all-star team comprised of players of any age from countries not in the tournament. The NHL is on record saying this will likely be a one-time measure and there will be full qualifying tournaments in 2020.

Gucci Mane

June 22nd, 2015 at 10:41 PM ^

Cool, it seems unfair but I like it. We should combine the USA with Mexico for the next wold cup; that team would have a legit chance to contend.

justingoblue

June 22nd, 2015 at 10:43 PM ^

This U23 team won't be a legit medal contender. The "new news" link is basically the Canadian team saying they might lose one or two players off their actual roster and aren't very concerned. It will probably be the same for the US.

It would be like combining the Mexican and American Olympic soccer teams- which I believe have the same U23 requirement- and entering a World Cup.

justingoblue

June 22nd, 2015 at 11:20 PM ^

If this system was in place for the last Olympics, Canada would have lost zero players and the US would have lost Justin Faulk and Cam Fowler (who could have been replaced with some combo of Jack Johnson, Keith Yandel, Erik Johnson).

Even a worldwide U23 team beating Canada, Russia, the US, Sweden, ect. would be a major upset and probably wouldn't be repeated against any of the others.

wlubd

June 22nd, 2015 at 11:38 PM ^

FTR, there is not going to be a U23 team for Europe. It's an all-star team for every country that isn't Russia, Sweden, Finland or Czech Republic as they're all competing individually.

Personally, I think the Europe team on paper is better than at least 2 of the above 4 teams.

As for the North American U-23 team, it's a dumb but relatively harmless idea I think. Unless they pull an upset they're a gimmick that won't affect the medal positions. Hurts the U.S. more than Canada due to depth. Only a couple Canadian kids that would stand a borderline shot of making the Sr. team anyway. USA on the other hand loses at the very least 3 guys who should make team in Galchenyuk, Jones and Trouba.

clarkiefromcanada

June 22nd, 2015 at 11:53 PM ^

Nothing like the NHL adding some random crap to something that doesn't need it. Bettman. 

This sort of move doesn't impact Canada, at all, which is why they signed off on it. Canada could send two full teams that would both contend for Gold while still sending a bunch of under 23's. 

WCHBlog

June 23rd, 2015 at 12:22 PM ^

Stupid, stupid gimmick. If you're going to do an internatonal event, let each country bring their best players. Maybe the U23s don't compete for a medal, but it affects the two North American teams. If Canada doesn't win gold, all you're going to hear is "We only lost because we couldn't take Connor McDavid".