Welcome back my Cap-friendlies! Hope everyone out there had a great New Year's! The World Juniors are going on right now and to be honest this is a tourney that I used to really watch closely but this season I haven't really been as invested as I usually am. I am generally aware what the results have been, but one item has caught my eye, and that's people predicting what each countries respected team could look like with the NHL announcing that they're making plans for a four-country international tournament in 2025. That got me thinking, what if that tournament had a salary cap like we have in the NHL and what would a roster look like?

I'm from the States and am curious what putting together a made-up Team USA at some point would look like, but I know where most of you are reading this from and my guess is that you have an FSA and not a ZIP Code. I may have to clear this with the DobberHockey Research and Development team if I have clearance to write on team Canada here but for now let's just roll with it! Before we start with the position groupings there are three rules I went by:

1 – We must abide by what the NHL salary cap is set at right now, today and that's around $83.5 million dollars.

2 – As far as player salaries are concerned, we're going to go off what their salary cap is today as well. This is because some of these players that will be named are in the final season of their current deal or have already signed an extension that hasn't kicked in yet.

3 – There are players that will be named that are currently on LTIR. For this though, we're going to assume that they're healthy and ready to lace 'em up for round one of this tournament.

I also have to say here that there are going to be names that are left off our team that are going to be a surprise, and I can promise you it's to get under the Cap. I spent probably more time than I should have during work yesterday throwing different scenarios into Excel, but it was for getting the best possible team out there on the ice. I also wanted to make sure here once we assemble our lines that each of our players are in a position, be-it forward or defense, that they are familiar with enough either at the NHL or at any point during international play. With that, who will be taking draws for our team?

Center: Connor McDavid ($12.5M), Sidney Crosby ($8.7M), Connor Bedard ($950K), Nick Paul ($3.1M)

First name on that list is easy and I'm not over thinking it; Connor McDavid makes the team. This is also something to remember if you ever have the first pick in your fantasy draft. Don't overthink it. Draft McDavid. His AAV will be the highest on our club but I'm not leaving the best player in the world out of this tournament here if I can help it. Next name is Sidney Crosby, and he brings two things that help here – well three if you also count that he's playing at an exceptionally high level so far this season. Crosby brings the international experience and leadership that we need as well as carrying a salary cap hit of $8.7M, that's manageable to fit onto the roster. Connor Bedard also makes sense here because he's right on his way to becoming one of the elite players in the world, as well as still on his ELC. Blackhawks need some representation in my opinion plus we're going to need at least two or three of those types of players carrying an entry-level deal and Bedard helps us fit that onto our cap. I struggled to find another center here, but you'll see when it's all said and done that, we had about $3M-$3.5M to work with, which Paul helps us fit perfectly. This is going to be the first name of a few that makes Team Canada not particularly by skill, but because of what his AAV currently is at for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Congrats Nick Paul!

Who is left off?

Yes. I know. Nathan MacKinnon's name is missing and believe me I tried every which way to incorporate his cap hit but the math just doesn't math. The numbers didn't number. Meaning that the highest paid player in the NHL this season will have to cheer his team on from the stands. Do I feel great about this? No not at all but we need a supporting cast, and we can afford to fit two or three good players onto our roster that would not have a combined cap hit of his $12.6M. John Tavares and Brayden Point's names are also absent from this list, and the reason being is the same as most of the omissions will be, they make too much against the salary cap.

Wingers (left) – Quinton Byfield ($894K), Carter Verhaeghe ($4.1M), Brandon Hagel ($1.5M), Mason McTavish ($894K)

First off, I'd like to congratulate Byfield and McTavish for being on their entry-level contract. For this you both get to participate in the tournament, good job by you guys! I could be talking myself into Byfield as a reserve for the actual club that will take the ice in when the time comes, but McTavish might be a stretch here. Verhaeghe will probably be on the actual team that will be assembled, but the only problem here is he's never talked about for how good he is. We didn't forget about you though Carter, and $4.1 is manageable. Brandon Hagel here we get at a discount and by that, I mean right now he makes $1.5M with an extension due to begin next season that bumps him up to $6.5M, which likely would have made him ineligible for our club.

Wingers (right) – Zach Hyman ($5.5M), Sam Reinhart ($6.5M), Jonathan Marchessault ($5M), Gabriel Vilardi ($3.4M)

Good news here, I'm going to guess that odds are Zach Hyman and Sam Reinhart will probably be in the team picture for the actual Team Canada that will take the ice in 2025. Jonathan Marchessault, maybe. Gabriel Vilardi…if the person constructing the team plays DFS, he has a shot here but I'm going to say he's a cross off if not. This group wasn't all too difficult to get together as each salary was manageable to fit under the Cap and I think we have a solid group here.

Who's left off?

I mean, who isn't left off? I tried every which way to get Warren Foegele on this club following his five-point game the other night, but he just didn't make the cut. Who else? Well…Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, Mathew Barzal turning the puck over, Mark Scheifele, Steven Stamkos, Brad Marchand, Travis Konecny, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins…I'm going to stop there as I could probably add another couple of names to this list. The wingers fell together pretty easy as nobody in this grouping carried a cap hit of over $7M but at one point before I settled on Mason McTavish, things got bleak for the final spot. I actually liked McTavish the most in his 2021 draft class but remembered that he's a dual citizen with Switzerland. However, he did play for Canada U-18's and 2022 IIHF so I'm saying he's part of our team.

Defense – Devon Toews ($4.5M), Brandon Montour ($3.5M), Evan Bouchard ($3.9M), Shea Theodore ($5.2M), Noah Dobson ($4), Owen Power ($916K)

I'm not going to lie to you guys, the blueline took the longest. Partially because there were player(s) I tried desperately to make the money work (Makar *cough*), and because there are so many really talented defensemen in the league that all carry a cap hit of around $6M or higher. It just got to be too difficult to fit players onto our roster but in the end, I have to say I don't hate what we ended up with. Toews, Theodore, and Dobson will most likely be on Team Canada in a year so that's half our d-core which isn't too shabby. Maybe Bouchard gets into the conversation as well but there's names that I'm going to only assume are in front of him that we'll touch on here in a little bit. Power was the last one that got the call and he, like Hagel, makes the team at the perfect time and that's before their extension begins next season. All in all, I'm not mad at this blue line. It of course could be better like any of these position groups are, but we have some decent puck movers here along with guys that have ran powerplays well either currently or within the past season or so.

Who's left off?

Cale Makar. Cale Makar is left off. Do I feel good about it? As I load NHL 24 with him on the cover, I can say for certain that I do not. But hey, I don't make the rules here…even though I sort of do? Other names here that we had to omit: Alex Pietrangelo, Josh Morrissey, and Dougie Hamilton were the three that I tried to fit in without taking away too much from another group. There was a workaround that I had here in net that we'll get to that could have saved us some money to boost our defense but ultimately, I went with what we have above. Like I mentioned, most of the defensemen that I wanted to add to our club had a cap hit at or above the $6M mark whereas everyone on our roster is below $5.5M.

Goaltending – Carter Hart ($3.9M) and Adin Hill ($4.9M)

I don't feel great about this but I'm going to be honest here, this is probably the actual goaltending tandem that we'll see in a year. I hear your Tristian Jarry argument but after he got me negative points again in fantasy last night along with his higher cap hit, he's left off our squad. My guess here is Carter Hart is our starter…saddle up everyone.

Who's left off?

Okay so here was my workaround to get some salary back for us, take Adin Hill off the roster and add Devon Levi in his place who is working on his ELC. I really don't hate the move, but I just thought that I'd want the two names above as a tandem. Did I spend more time than anyone should have looking into High Danger Sv% and GSAA the past two seasons to determine if this was right for our imaginary team? I'm not saying that I didn't. Only other names here that could be mentioned are Marc-Andre Fleury and Jordan Binnington. Fleury actually did make some sense for us but decided to go with Hill in his place, but one last name I considered was Darcy Kuemper but remembered a conversation I had once with a good buddy from Sault Ste. Marie if Kuemper would be at any point part of team Canada. The response – "No way." …all I needed to hear.

With that, ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls. Adding up all of our salaries we reach a grand total of…$83.4M, just under the salary cap of $83.5. We did it, and with that put your hands together for the team.

Byfield – McDavid – Hyman
Verhaeghe – Crosby – Reinhart
Hagel – Bedard – Marchessault
McTavish – Paul – Vilardi

Toews – Montour
Theodore – Bouchard
Power – Dobson

Hart
Hill

If this was a capped tournament, I have to say this lineup would easily be competitive and I would open that up to all countries and not just the four that will be participating.

*Salary Cap data from CapFriendly.com

For continued fantasy news and notes, follow me on Twitter @ndySanz.