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FlamesNation Mailbag: World Juniors and an Olympics look-ahead
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Ryan Pike
Dec 7, 2020, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 7, 2020, 00:25 EST
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At some point in the next week or so, we’ll know more or less when the 2020-21 NHL season will start and probably what the format of the season will be. That’s exciting!
As we wait, let’s delve into the mailbag!
Let’s unpack this!
For Flames at the World Juniors, I’m thinking Dustin Wolf (United States) and Yan Kuznetsov (Russia) are basically locks for their respective teams. I began Canada’s camp thinking only Jakob Pelletier would make the team, but I’m beginning to think Connor Zary has a better chance than I thought at cracking the lineup. Right now, I think all four of them make their teams.
And here’s my projected starting Flames lineup, with 22 players due to cap constraints:
Mangiapane – Lindholm – Tkachuk (A)
Gaudreau – Monahan (A) – Leivo
Dube – Backlund (A) – Simon
Lucic – Bennett – Ryan
Extra: Nordstrom
Giordano (C) – Tanev
Hanifin – Andersson
Valimaki – Nesterov
Extra: Kylington
Markstrom
Rittich
Right now, I’m leaning towards Chris Tanev. Giordano is the team’s best pure defensive player, in that he can be used in the defensive zone and manage to (a) prevent offense by the other team and (b) generate offense by breaking out of the zone. Tanev s cut from the same cloth, and putting them together as the tough minutes shutdown duo opens up easier deployments for everybody else.
Right now, the expectation is that the 2021-22 season will be normal… aside from the NHL pausing for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Already qualified for the tournament are Canada, USA, Germany, China, Russia, Czechs, Switzerland, Finland and Sweden. Three others will qualify through play-in tournaments in August, with the highest IIHF-ranked teams still alive being Slovakia, Latvia and Norway.
So of the teams that are in, or probably in, here are the 2020-21 Flames with a shot:
  • Matthew Tkachuk is a lock for the USA
  • Johnny Gaudreau is a lock for the USA
  • Nikita Nesterov has a strong chance for Russia as their captain from the 2018 team that won gold
  • With a good season, Juuso Valimaki is in the mix for a spot on Finland’s blueline
  • David Rittich has a strong chance for the Czech Republic
  • With a good season, Dominik Simon is in the mix for the Czech forward group
  • Jacob Markstrom is a lock for Sweden
  • Elias Lindholm is a lock for Sweden
  • With a good season, Rasmus Andersson is in the mix for the Swedish blueline
  • With a good season, Mikael Backlund is in the mix for the Swedish forward group
Now, Norway and Slovakia will likely have teams lean on NHL (or even high-level international) experience). So minor-leaguers Emilio Pettersen (Norway), Martin Pospisil and Adam Ruzcka (Slovakia) may have a chance to crack their respective rosters with strong 2020-21 campaigns.

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