The United States, Canada and Russia rolled out their rosters for orientation camps leading up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and the Nashville Predators are well represented. So far, the following players have been invited to their teams’ orientation camp:
United States: Seth Jones, Craig Smith
Canada: Shea Weber
Sweden: Patric Hornqvist
Finland: Pekka Rinne, Joonas Jarvinen
Russia: Alexander Radulov
Note: Switzerland hasn’t announced anything on this front, so don’t sweat the omission of Roman Josi’s name.
I would be stunned if Jones or Smith actually made the US Olympic team this time around, but perhaps the experience at camp in late August might be good for them (even though it sounds likely that they won’t even skate due to insurance concerns). One has to wonder how much sway Team USA general manager David Poile had to include some Nashville Predators on this initial roster, considering names like Alex Goligoski on defense and Jason Pominville at forward who were left off.
As Josh Cooper noted, it’s interesting that Smith got the invite to orientation camp while Colin Wilson did not. Will strong showings in the 2011 & 2013 World Championships (just ignore 2012, m’kay?) make the difference for a player who hasn’t shown the ability to consistently produce at the NHL level yet?