@Young:
There will be the usual nations, Canada, USA, Russia, Sweden, Findland… but they will also have a young stars team made up of both Canadians and Americans under 23. Also, smaller nations like Germany, Latvia and Belarus will create one team amung them so we might see Kopitar playing with Nedved (lol). The only issue I see is if there is some political tention between nations and foes may have to be teammates!
The young stars team sounds interesting, but is it like a young stars tournament? As in the other countries have them too? I don’t really understand that part, especially since it combines USA and Canada. Unless it is just like an honorary thing and they don’t actually play.
As for combining the best of the smaller nations… I think that is great because it gets NHL stars (like Kopitar) involved when we otherwise wouldn’t be able to see them. But I agree that the politics of it all could be problematic. Not to mention how long the teams may actually be able to practice together before the tournament. Although, I thought they said that the World Cup would be in late summer or something so as not to interfere with the NHL season.