USA 2010

With the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver set to begin this time next year, I can’t help but think of the incredible task sitting before Team USA’s General Manager Brian Burke. Narrowing an entire country’s worth of players into one 23-man squad is hard enough, but this Olympics will be different. There is a big cloud of uncertainty hanging over Vancouver 2010, because coinciding with the fact that the Olympics are being hosted by an NHL city, there is an underlying concern over whether or not NHL players will even participate in the Olympics again after Vancouver. With the 2014 Olympics set to take place in Sochi, Russia, tensions over Russia’s refusal to sign an international player transfer agreement have led the NHL to consider pulling all players under NHL contracts from participating in future Olympics.

With the thought of no more Olympics hanging over NHL-heavy nations like the US, an interesting subplot begins to develop when considering which players to select. Does Burke, knowing this may be the last go around, select a veteran-heavy roster in hopes of bringing lots of experience to the table, as well as providing the more decorated players one last chance of true international competition? Or does Burke go with a very young roster, taking advantage of the incredible wealth of youth that American hockey presents, grooming Team USA for possible future international competition?

Either way, it’s a tough call to make, so when picking my team, I went with a little of both. Heavy on the youth, but with just enough veteran leadership to really anchor the group. Numbers were given out on a seniority basis. And if you’re not happy with the selections, don’t worry, I’m not the one who actually has to do this.

Goaltenders
01 – Tim Thomas
29 – Ty Conklin
30 – Ryan Miller

Defensemen
03 – Jack Johnson
07 – Paul Martin
13 – Alex Goligoski
18 – Mathieu Schneider
20 – Ryan Whitney
22 – Ryan Suter
28 – Brian Rafalski (A)

Forwards
09 – Mike Modano (C)
10 – David Booth
11 – Zach Parise (A)
12 – Ryan Malone
17 – Ryan Kesler
19 – Scott Gomez
21 – Drew Stafford
23 – Dustin Brown
25 – Blake Wheeler
26 – Eric Cole
54 – Bobby Ryan
81 – Phil Kessel
88 – Patrick Kane