The World Junior Hockey Championship has featured some of the best current talent in the world. Many of the players are now NHL stars, and will eventually find themselves in Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame if they’re not already there. With the tournament set to start today, we're taking a look back at the best rosters to ever represent both respective countries in the tournament.
Without further ado...
Team USA- 2013
(Getty Images/Bruce Bennett)
The 2007 roster, which featured forwards such as Patrick Kane, Kyle Okposo and James vanRiemsdyk, and defenceman Erik Johnson and Jack Johnson, nearly took the cake. The 2013 roster, however, was a bit more stacked. Plus, the 2013 roster ended up capturing gold, while the 2007 roster lost to Canada in the semi-finals. Take a look.
Bolded players are currently in the NHL.
Forwards:
Cole Bardreau
Riley Barber
Tyler Biggs
Alex Galchenyuk
John Gaudreau
Rocco Grimaldi
Ryan Hartman
Sean Kuraly
Mario Lucia
J.T. Miller
Blake Pietila
Vincent Trocheck
Jimmy Vesey
Defencemen:
Shayne Gostisbehere
Seth Jones
Jake McCabe
Connor Murphy
Mike Reilly
Patrick Sieloff
Jacob Trouba
Goalies:
John Gibson
Jon Gillies
Garret Sparks
There are 13 current NHL players from the roster, and good ones at that. In case you forgot, Galchenyuk is both an American, and Russian citizen.
You may be thinking that a roster can’t get much better than that. But wait until you see the 2005 roster that represented Team Canada in North Dakota.
Team Canada- 2005
(Getty Images/Jeff Vinnick)
Forwards:
Patrice Bergeron
Jeff Carter
Jeremy Colliton
Sidney Crosby
Nigel Dawes
Stephen Dixon
Colin Fraser
Ryan Getzlaf
Andrew Ladd
Clark MacArthur
Corey Perry
Mike Richards
Anthony Stewart
Defencemen:
Cam Barker
Shawn Belle
Braydon Coburn
Dion Phaneuf
Brent Seabrook
Danny Syvret
Shea Weber
Goaltenders:
Rejean Beauchemin
Jeff Glass
It remains to be seen whether the USA team will produce as many NHLers, but they might have a tougher time catching up in a different department. Nine of the players from the 2005 roster went on to win a Stanley Cup.
(Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
We look forward to seeing what the talent in this year’s tournament will look like down the road.
