World Cup power rankings

[scoop 3,426]

6. Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe has the worst starting goaltender in the tournament with Boris Tsezar, as well as, in my opinion, the worst defensive unit. I would say their forwards are about average, though they do lack a bit on star power outside of Vasile Lamb, but they also have few holes up front. I think they'll be around the middle in terms of scoring, but that is not going to be good enough when they have the worst back end.

 

5. Nordic

Team Nordic's biggest weakness is their forward group, which is evident when you see that Tyler Reinhart made the roster. Now, one player alone won't tank a team, but Reinhart has so little business making a World Cup roster that I think a mistake must have been made. I do think they are above average both in defensemen, but just overall the team looks the worst out of all in terms of scoring. Papa Emeritus in net is one of the better goalies in the tournament, but I don't think he'll be enough to save the team.

 

4. World

Their roster hasn't been announced yet, so there is a bit of speculation on my part when ranking Team World, but ultimately I see this as their highest potential spot right now, though they are very close to Team Nordic in my mind. They have a very good group of defensemen led by Hari Singh Nalwa and Hammar Voss. That unit will have to do much of the lifting for the team, as their forwards are not much better than Nordic's as a whole.

 

3. Western Europe

I think there is a clear jump from the bottom three to the top three, and it starts with the forwards for Western Europe. They have Daniel Janser, Nico Pearce, and Ronan Lavelle leading the way, so I expect a lot of good things from their offense. The defense is relatively weak beyond Tavish DeGroot, but they have Cole Pearce in net to make up for that.

 

2. Canada

Canada doesn't have the big name forwards like Western Europe, but I still think they can perform quite well. For the trio of AJ Williams, Baby Bob, and Jonathan Ori, this is the last time they will play in the VHL. They have a top three defense that should also be able to contribute quite well offensively, which puts them at two for me.

 

1. USA

Putting this Team USA defense in front of Xavier Booberry is absolutely unfair. In Erlantz Jokinen, Max Torq, and Brian Payne, I believe they have three of the best five defensemen playing in the tournament. If ever a team was going to allow zero goals in a World Cup, this is the team. Their second line of forwards will be the biggest weak spot on the team, but even that will be hard for teams to take advantage of.

[FrostBeard 2,049]

Eastern Europe has Sirdsvaldis Miglasķēms - they are winning the whole tournament.

[AJW 2,156]

 

I didn’t post in the Team Announcements because I am dumb

[comrade cat 283]

1 hour ago, scoop said:

6. Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe has the worst starting goaltender in the tournament with Boris Tsezar, 

Just got my entire players career reputation destroyed in a single sentence

[scoop 3,426]

15 minutes ago, AJW said:

 

I didn’t post in the Team Announcements because I am dumb

Ah, I see. Well I had 10/12 players right, and I'd still put you guys at four. A better four, because I missed Davis, but you still don't crack the top three.

[Steve 1,920]

2 hours ago, scoop said:

Eastern Europe has the worst starting goaltender in the tournament with Boris Tsezar

Boris has talent, just not the luxury of playing on an elite team. A great teammate that I respect. I know your article isn't sugar coating anything and found it a good read. 

[KaleebtheMighty 1,509]

2 hours ago, scoop said:

Eastern Europe has the worst starting goaltender in the tournament with Boris Tsezar to take advantage of.

 

[scoop 3,426]

2 minutes ago, KaleebtheMighty said:

 

Looking at attributes, not statistics.

[KaleebtheMighty 1,509]

2 minutes ago, scoop said:

Looking at attributes, not statistics.

 

Gotcha, I was about to say lol good article though!

[nurx 914]

1 hour ago, scoop said:

Ah, I see. Well I had 10/12 players right, and I'd still put you guys at four. A better four, because I missed Davis, but you still don't crack the top three.

yeah when the best forwards on team world are 3 forwards who have had wildly disappointing careers it's hard to get excited but also these forwards have the ability to be good. We will see.

[Alex 3,198]

I still find Canada's roster really funny as AJ Williams isn't even eligible since they didn't play last season and that the roster consists of 7 forwards and 3 D...

[Dom 1,445]

Vasile lamb isn’t even close to be top tpa forward of the team

[Lemorse7 1,014]

4 hours ago, scoop said:

Eastern Europe has the worst starting goaltender in the tournament with Boris Tsezar,

WTF taking shot  at my boy like that 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Lemorse7

[scoop 3,426]

1 hour ago, Alex said:

I still find Canada's roster really funny as AJ Williams isn't even eligible since they didn't play last season and that the roster consists of 7 forwards and 3 D...

Oh yeah, he's not huh. I did actually notice that Tyler Reinhart didn't play last season either, which I now have checked and realized is because he retired. When I first noticed that, I assumed he just didn't draw any interest as a free agent from any team.

[Dabnad 172]

5 hours ago, scoop said:

 

Eastern Europe has the worst starting goaltender in the tournament with Boris Tsezar,

I’m not in the tournament but don’t do our boy like that

[scoop 3,426]

Evidently people don't like me calling Tsezar the worst starting goalie in the tournament.

[comrade cat 283]

3 hours ago, scoop said:

Evidently people don't like me calling Tsezar the worst starting goalie in the tournament.

I also didn't expect this much backup from my home boys but I still love your take on the power rankings on the teams but I understand if we are going on tpe and everything at first I thought you meant statistics