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.
CZECHIA
First Team
F: Jaromír Jágr
F: David Pastrňák
F: Patrik Eliáš
D: Marek Židličký
D: Tomáš Kaberle
G: Tomáš Vokoun
Second Team
F: Jakub Voráček
F: Milan Hejduk
F: David Krejčí
D: Roman Hamrlík
D: Pavel Kubina
G: Dominik Hašek
This is the first country that’s a traditional hockey power that I’ve attempted, which is more difficult because there are simply more good players to choose from. Initially, I wanted to pick Roman Červenka on the second team, despite his very brief time in the NHL with the Calgary Flames, due to his exceptional international career and his showing in European leagues.
However, after consulting with several Czech hockey journalists, I couldn’t justify choosing him over any of the other top six forwards. As it is, Tomáš Plekanec is probably next in line and Václav Prospal was also suggested. Perhaps including him will prompt ex-player-turned-broadcaster Jakub Voráček to forgive me for writing this.
There wasn’t a lot of debate about the defensemen – Židlický, Kaberle, Hamrlík and Kubina were the consensus top four – although Filip Hronek might have made the team if he’d started his career a bit earlier.
In goal, Tomáš Vokoun is the clear number one based on his NHL and international play but it’s easy to forget that, despite turning 35 in January 2000, Dominik Hašek still had almost 200 NHL wins, another Vezina Trophy and another Olympics as a starting goalie in his future. When you hear from him these days, he’s usually speaking out against the inclusion of Russians in the NHL or in the Olympics.
Jaromír Jágr was 27 on Jan. 1, 2000 and hasn’t played an NHL game in over seven years now, but he still outscored all other Czechs in the first quarter of this century. Nearly 53, he still plays in the Czech Extraliga, although it’s expected this is his final season.
Agree or disagree with the selections? Comment below and check back daily as more international quarter-century teams are revealed.