Fresh faces for Team USA being scouted for '10 Games

Bruce Bennett, Getty Images

Zach Parise

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver might be 15 months away, but the selection process is already well under way for a new generation of players to wear red, white and blue

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: November 8, 2008 - 5:38 AM

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA - Hockey fans who have gotten used to watching Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios, Brett Hull and Brian Leetch play tournament after tournament and dominate for USA Hockey better get ready for change.

Those players represented the United States proudly over the years, winning the World Cup of Hockey in 1996 and a silver medal at the 2002 Olympics, but their international playing days are over.

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver might be 15 months away, but the selection process is already well under way for a new generation of players to wear red, white and blue -- guys like Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel and Zach Parise.

"It's going to be a different generation of players that a lot of people in the U.S. aren't going to recognize with the same instantaneous, 'Oh, [Phil] Housley. Oh, [Mike] Modano,'" said Team USA GM Brian Burke, who doubles as Anaheim's general manager. "It'll be a transition group that way. It'll be for some of these guys their first foray onto the international stage.

"They need a stage. The '96 team had a stage. This is going to be these kids' stage and they need to step up at that time. "

During the rest of the NHL season, Burke and four other GMs will be double-dipping. When Burke, Team USA associate GM David Poile (Nashville), Paul Holmgren (Philadelphia), Ray Shero (Pittsburgh) and Don Waddell (Atlanta) enter an arena to scout, they're not necessarily only scouting for their NHL teams.

The five GMs met for three hours in Chicago in late October to submit ghost lineups if they were picking the team today. "If one guy is on all five ballots, then they probably are a good bet to make the team," Burke said.

By next August, Team USA plans to hold an evaluation camp of 30-35 players, which is a small number when one considers there are about 60 U.S.-born players who are contenders to make the team.

But Burke said the American roster won't just be stacked with high-skilled, high-scoring players. Since men's hockey during the Olympics will be played at the Canucks' home rink, GM Place, this Olympics will be played on an NHL-sized rink.

"You play on the North American sheet, you play on the NHL sheet, you play Canada on Canadian soil, we need to have some sand in the lineup," Burke said. "And the way I build my teams ... we go for high, high skill on the top six forwards and we go for hard hats on the bottom six."

That means hard-nosed players like Vancouver's Ryan Kesler, Los Angeles' Dustin Brown and Montreal's Mike Komisarek have inside tracks of making the team.

There will still be some veterans, probably guys like Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Ryan Malone, Erik Cole and Brian Rafalski, but there will be mostly an influx of youth.

"And that's not saying none of the [long-time veterans] will be involved in 2010, like for example, Keith Tkachuk's off to a great start. He's having a marvelous year already," Burke said.

Bill Guerin and Doug Weight can still play the game, and of course, there's Modano.

"If I still was playing at a high level, I'd love to still do it," Modano said.

Burke says U.S. hockey fans should feel optimistic. "The talent pool, thanks to the Under-18 program in Ann Arbor, the U.S. players that will be available to play in 2010 will be the deepest," Burke said. "The reason the betting money's going to be on the other countries is because of the star power that they'll be able to put out on the ice.

"People say Canada's got the best team or Russia's got the best team, the Swedes have the best team. I don't mind at all going into a tournament as the underdog. Suits me fine."

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