Building a World Championship team

This years GM of Canada's World Championship team, Rob Blake, is faced with quite a daunting task of assembling a roster to win Canada's first World Championship medal since 2009.

A Gold medal roster

In 2007, this was the group of players who won Canada's last gold medal at the Worlds.

When Rob Blake is sitting down with his management team looking at who will be available to head over to Minsk, Belarus to compete for a World Championship he will be faced with a tougher sell to some of the higher end talents. Guys like Roberto Luongo, Shea Weber, Dan Hamhuis and Mike Smith may not be willing to go over to Belarus due to the fact they both played over in Sochi. Even some of the "older" players like the Staal brothers, Mark Giordano, Jason Spezza and Cam Ward might not be willing to go over because of their family's. In saying that, Rob Blake and co. just might be able to put together a solid roster without any of those players. 

NOTE: These players are all picked based on the premises of players on teams that are not in a playoff position as of April 4th, 2014. At the end of the regular season, I will make a revised list based off of who didn't make the playoffs.

Left Wing

• Taylor Hall, Edmonton Oilers
• David Perron, Edmonton Oilers
• Evander Kane, Winnipeg Jets
• Andrew Ladd, Winnipeg Jets
• Jonathan Hubredeau, Florida Panthers
• Jeff Skinner, Carolina Hurricanes

Center

• Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Edmonton Oilers
• Eric Staal, Carolina Hurricanes
• Jordan Staal, Carolina Hurricanes
• Jason Spezza, Ottawa Senators

Right Wing 

• Jordan Eberle, Edmonton Oilers
• Chris Stewart, Buffalo Sabers

LW	C	RW
Taylor Hall	Eric Staal	Jordan Eberle
Jeff Skinner	Jason Spezza	Evander Kane
David Perron	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins	Andrew Ladd
Jonathan Huberdeau	Jordan Staal	Chris Stewart

This group of forwards brings a lot to the table with their good mix of size, speed and skill and all four lines have the ability to score at will.

Defense

• Shea Weber, Nashville Predators
• Dan Hamhuis, Vancouver Canucks
• Mark Giordano, Calgary Flames
• Justin Schultz, Edmonton Oilers
• Tyler Myers, Buffalo Sabers
• Mike Green, Washington Capitals 

D	D
Shea Weber	Dan Hamhuis
Mark Giordano	Justin Schultz
Tyler Myers	Mike Green

Just like the offence, this group of defensemen will allow Team Canada's offense as 3 of these 6 are in the top 20 in scoring by defensemen this season.

Goaltenders

• Roberto Luongo, Florida Panthers
• Mike Smith, Phoenix Coyotes
• Ben Scrivens, Edmonton Oilers

G

Roberto Luongo

Mike Smith

Ben Scrivens

This group of goaltenders could change drastically as I don't think Luongo or Smith would actually go over, so Jonathan Bernier or James Reimer could head over instead.