In the spirit of the NHL announcing quarter-century teams for each of its 30 franchises that have played since 2000, I thought I’d try a similar exercise by country – first and second teams. It’s not limited to NHL performance, although that carries a lot of weight. International play for the country also weighs heavily. To be eligible, a player needn’t have necessarily played for the country at a major tournament, but he had (or has) to be eligible.
Countries chosen have to have played in at least four major international tournaments (Olympic games, top-division IIHF World Championships or World Cups of Hockey) since 2000. Based on that arbitrary number, 20 countries qualify. Great Britain barely makes the cut with four top-level World Championships, while Hungary with three, South Korea and Poland each with two, and China with one do not.
I’m revealing them alphabetically starting with Austria, although the four teams in the 4 Nations Face-Off will be held back until the end, just before the start of the tournament.
Scroll down for links to other teams published so far.
AUSTRIA
First Team
F: Thomas Vanek
F: Michael Grabner
F: Marco Rossi
D: Dominique Heinrich
D: Gerhard Unterluggauer
G: Reinhard Divis
Second Team
F: Thomas Koch
F: Michael Raffl
F: Thomas Raffl
D: Matthias Trattnig
D: Thomas Pöck
G: Bernhard Starkbaum
The first team’s forwards are largely based on NHL performance but they also played well for Austria internationally, with Grabner recording four points in five games in his only World Championship. Marco Rossi of the Minnesota Wild is only 23 but was nearly a point-per-game in two World Championships and among Austrians in the NHL only Vanek has more points per game this century. The second line is more based on national team performance with the Raffl brothers being reunited.
The defense is almost entirely national-team based, with Thomas Pöck’s 118 games with the New York Rangers and New York Islanders being the only one to play in the NHL. Matthias Trattnig started as a power forward and switched to defense, but his overall body of work was enough to get him somewhere on this team.
In goal, Reinhard Divis and Bernhard Starkbaum stand out well above anybody else over the past 25 years, with Divis’ 28-game NHL tenure with the St. Louis Blues helping him get the nod for the first team. Next in line was probably national team incumbent David Kickert.
Young Detroit Red Wings center Marco Kasper and Montreal Canadiens prospects Vinzenz Rohrer and David Reinbacher don’t yet have the body of work to qualify for these teams, but check back in 25 years to see if they make Austria’s team of the half-century.
Agree or disagree with the selections? Comment below and check back daily as more international quarter-century teams are revealed.