Mika Zibanejad snubbed from Team Sweden for World Cup of Hockey
The final 23-man roster was announced earlier today
Team Sweden named its final roster for September's World Cup of Hockey, and noticeably absent was Mika Zibanejad of the Ottawa Senators. Z-bad finished 12th among Swedish players in points this past season, tied with final nomination Carl Soderberg, and ahead of recently-named Jakob Silfverberg, Carl Hagelin, and Patric Hornqvist. It's important to remember that three of the players who finished ahead of Zibanejad were defencemen. Marcus Kruger, who was the final forward named, finished with just four points in 44 games. Among Swedish forward this past season, Zibanejad finished 11th in time-on-ice per game (17:45). It's possible Team Sweden picked forwards with more shorthanded experience, as all the players chosen had more SH TOI per game than Zibanejad, but his 1:25 per game was not tiny. I thought Zibanejad's strong end to the season with Kyle Turris injured may have helped him, but he was likely one of the final cuts instead.
Former Senators Silfverberg and Robin Lehner were named to Team Sweden. They joined Milan Michalek of the Czech Republic as former Senators named to their national teams this morning.
The final roster announcements for the last four teams (Europe, USA, North America, and Canada) will start just after 6 p.m. ET tonight. So far Erik Karlsson (Sweden) is the only Senator named to a national team. It remains to be seen if Cody Ceci (North America) or Mark Stone (Canada) can use strong World Championships to earn a final berth with their respective teams. Also in consideration are Bobby Ryan (USA) and Jean-Gabriel Pageau (North America), the latter of whom may have used a very strong end to the season, combined with penalty-killing prowess, to force his way into the young guns team.