New Jersey Devils Who Should Be Going To Winter Olympics
The NHL decided in the offseason that its players would not be going to South Korea to play in the Olympics. These six New Jersey Devils players lost out on the opportunity.
The Winter Olympics begin in less than a week, and there are going to be hockey players playing the national game. However, it won’t be the best players. The NHL decided it was best for their players to skip the Olympics. That means we won’t see the New Jersey Devils or any of its players in South Korea for this tournament. No Devils players will be able to come back to the United States as a Gold Medal winner.
So, playing the What If game, which Devils players would have been able to represent their country at the Olympics? There are at least six that would have made their respective team.
Pavel Zacha
Pavel Zacha is finally coming into his own after being paired with Miles Wood and Kyle Palmieri on the Devils second line. He’s become a playmaker and a hard-nosed man on the boards. He still has the ability to put the puck in the net, despite the fact he’s dealt with some bad luck so far this season.
Zacha isn’t one of the best players in the league, but he’s got a lot to bring to the table. He’s just 20 years old, and could have been the future of Czech hockey. Him and David Pastrnak would join some of the veterans like Radim Vrbata and David Krejci.
The team would be led by Jakub Vorachek and Ondrej Palat, but Zacha could carve out a very nice role with this team. Obviously, if this was Team USA or Canada, Zacha doesn’t sniff the team where he is now, but on the Czech team he definitely makes it.
Sami Vatanen
There are some decent defensemen representing Finland in the NHL. Rasmus Ristolainen and Olli Maata, but none compare to the contributions of Sami Vatanen. The newest Devils player would be the top defenseman for the Finnish team.
While Vatanen took some time to get acclimated to New Jersey, he’s now the most reliable man on the blue line every single game. He could use that to try and carry the Finnish team in the Olympics.
The Finland team wouldn’t be anything to go home about. The team has five great young players in Sebastian Aho, Teavu Teravainen, Patrick Laine, Aleksander Barkov and Mikko Rantanen. This team would compete, but it would be hard to win games with the lack of depth.
For this Finnish team to compete, Tuuka Rask or Pekka Rinne would have to stand on their heads. Vatanen would do his best to keep pucks away from his goalie, but as we’ve seen on the Devils, it can’t all be on him.
Jesper Bratt
Jesper Bratt is the biggest surprise forwards in the NHL this season. That may be a bold statement, but it’s true. Nobody expected a 19-year-old sixth-round rookie to fight for his spot on the first line of a good offensive team.
He has 31 points in 50 NHL games this season. He could bring that experience to what would be a very good Swedish team. Bratt wouldn’t be a lock to make this team, but his speed and skill would be impossible to keep off.
This experience would have been great for Bratt. He could play with current stars like Filip Forsberg and Gabriel Landeskog, while also spending time with veterans like Nicklas Backstrom and the Sedin twins. Spending time with those players and seeing their tendencies would have been something he could bring back to the Devils.
Taylor Hall
This one seems obvious, but as always Team Canada is stacked. However, Taylor Hall is playing like one of the best players in the league. There is no chance that Hall would be left off the Olympic roster. He sits in the top 20 in scoring despite missing a few games with small injuries. He brings up the rest of his teammates, and elevates two rookies to play better than anyone could have imagined at this point.
He’s been so good this year, head coach John Hynes is now double shifting the 26 year old. That kind of endurance would be needed for Team Canada.
Hall would stand out among the stars of Canada. He could find himself on a top line with the likes of Sidney Crosby or Steven Stamkos, or could play lower in the lines with Nathan MacKinnon or Claude Giroux. Obviously, Canada would look like its own version of the All-Star team, but Hall would be an easy addition.
Cory Schneider
Cory Schneider has been this close every time it came around to be the starter for a USA team. This was probably Schneider’s last chance to play for the red, white and blue. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.
Schneider would be on the roster with the likes of Jonathan Quick and Ben Bishop, but with how Schneider bounced back this season he’d still have a good chance to win the starter position. He’s been playing well, despite playing behind a defense that leaves much to be desired.
That’s not the case if Team USA was playing. Outside of the young guns representing the USA in Jack Eichel and Auston Matthews, there is a great defense. John Carlson, Seth Jones and Noah Hanifin would keep pucks away from Schneider, while also driving play at the other end of the rink.
Schneider would definitely make the roster, and even if he didn’t start, it would have been a great experience in Pyeongchang.
Nico Hischier
Finally, there’s Nico Hischier. This one has the least doubt out of any of the other players on the Devils.
Hischier has been very good in his first season in the NHL. In fact, only one other Swiss player in the NHL has more points than he does. Kevin Fiala has 35 points, against Nico’s 31 points.
Nobody is arguing this Switzerland team would make a play at a medal, but it would be great to showcase Nico on a national stage. The spotlight would be on the first-overall pick every game they played. Despite losses coming their way, the experience would be one-of-a-kind for Hischier.
Next: New Jersey Devils Have Officially Turned a Corner
It is sad that the Devils won’t be representing their countries at the Olympics. Now, all we have is dreams of what could have been.