Russia Announces World Championships Roster

With the World Hockey Championships now less than a week away, countries have started revealing their roster for the tournament.  Russia is the latest to do so, announcing a group that has a mixture of NHL experience with several key veterans from the KHL as well.  Their roster is as follows with NHL affiliations noted where applicable:

Goaltenders

Ivan Fedotov (PHI)
Alexander Samonov

Defensemen

Grigory Dronov
Vladislav Gavrikov (CBJ)
Alexey Marchenko
Nikita Nesterov (CGY)
Ivan Provorov (PHI)
Igor Ozhiganov
Rushan Rafikov (CGY)
Nikita Zadorov (CHI)
Artem Zub (OTT)

Forwards

Alexander Barabanov (SJ)
Anton Burdasov
Emil Galimov (SJ)
Mikhail Grigorenko (CBJ)
Vladislav Kamenev (COL)
Pavel Karnaukhov (CGY)
Andrey Kuzmenko
Ivan Morozov (VGK)
Konstantin Okulov
Maxim Shalunov (CHI)
Anton Slepyshev (EDM)
Artem Shvets-Rogovoy
Sergey Tolchinsky
Evgeny Timkin
Dmitry Voronkov (CBJ)

That leaves Russia two players short – one goalie and one forward.  They will have two taxi squads of sorts, one with the team and one in Riga.  Players staying in the bubble with the team including goalie Ivan Bocharov and forwards Ilya Safonov and Vasili Podkolzin (VAN) while draft-eligible blueliner Kirill Kirsanov and winger Kirill Marchenko (CBJ) will be in Riga.  Speculatively, keeping only one extra goalie in the bubble suggests that Russia may be looking to see if someone like Washington’s Ilya Samsonov was to become available if Washington is ousted quickly in the playoffs and would turn to Bucharov if that doesn’t happen.

If you follow the KHL closely, you might have noticed that most of the KHL players are from two teams.  SKA St. Petersburg has 11 players on this list while three of the top four scorers from CSKA Moscow (highlighted by Okulov who has attracted NHL interest in recent years and will again this offseason) are there as well.  That familiarity should certainly be helpful in a short tournament like this one.  Russia’s first game is set for Friday against the Czech Republic.