Would a “Rest of the World” All-Star Team be competitive in the Olympics?

It should be clear that there are seven countries in the world that are competitive at the highest levels of international hockey tournaments: Canada, the US, Russia, the Czechs, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden. Each of these countries can field a team that is well above the NHL average, and most of them would likely be odds-on favorites to beat the Stanley Cup champion. Imagine if you took the Sharks and added a 1st line of Crosby, Nash and Iginla, plus gave them Niedermayer, Shea Weber and Duncan Keith on defense. That’s still a substantially weaker team than the one Canada is fielding in the 2010 Olympics.

But after those seven countries, the drop-off in talent is massive. Germany can almost field a team where half the players have NHL experience, and they are 0-13 against the top seven teams since 2002. Switzerland has two good NHL players and has beaten several of the top seven teams, but almost lost to Italy in the 2006 Olympics. In fact, I was wondering if we could even make an 8th competitive team if we took the best players from every other country in the world. Here's a stab at the roster:

Pos	Player	Nationality	Junior	GP	G	A	P
G	Hiller	SUI	Swiss
G	Greiss	GER	Germany
G	Huet	FRA	France
D	Streit	SUI	Swiss	62	8	23	31
D	Skrastins	LAT	Latvia	59	2	9	11
D	Bartulis	LAT	Latvia/Canada	46	0	8	8
D	Salei	BLR	Belarus	2	0	0	0
D	Ehrhoff	GER	Germany	61	11	20	31
D	Seidenberg	GER	Germany	61	2	20	22
D	Schubert	GER	Germany	44	2	5	7
D	Tollefsen	NOR	Norway/Canada	18	0	2	2
F	A. Kostitsyn	BLR	Belarus/Russia	40	12	13	25
F	S. Kostitsyn	BLR	Belarus/Canada	30	2	8	10
F	Grabovski	BLR	Belarus/Russia	42	7	18	25
F	Goc	GER	Germany	52	10	11	21
F	Sturm	GER	Germany	54	18	10	28
F	Hecht	GER	Germany	60	13	16	29
F	Thoresen	NOR	Norway/Canada
F	Vanek	AUS	USA	55	18	21	39
F	Kopitar	SLO	Slovenia/Sweden	61	28	36	64
F	Boedker	DEN	Denmark/Sweden/Canada	14	1	2	3
F	Nielsen	DEN	Denmark/Sweden	56	9	18	27
F	Park	KOR	Canada	62	6	13	19
F	Wolski	POL	Canada	61	17	30	47

There are probably some other dual citizens we could convince to play for this team – Robin Regehr? – and a few KHL players I don’t know about. But I think the defense is a little thin and there are too many Islanders on the roster to make this team’s most likely finish higher than 8th.

At any rate, "Team Unified" won't be allowed to play in the Olympics. But when the next World Cup of Hockey rolls around, the powers that be should seriously consider this option – it would be much more entertaining than watching Germany and Switzerland try to eke out a tie.

Talking Points