[killer_carlson]

Originally Posted by _Q_

1. Canada
2. Sweden

3. USA

4. Finland
5. Russia
6. Slovakia

7. Czech
8. Switzerland

9. Austria
10. Latvia
11. Norway
12. Slovenia

Top two teams are clearly Canada and Sweden. I give the slight edge to Canada because of superior forwards and defence, but I think Sweden's goaltending has the potential to steal the show.

I think USA is a tier below those two, but again, they have very strong goaltending.

Finland to me while they don't have the star power of Russia, their defence and goaltending is vastly superior that's why I give them the edge in this group. Slovakia also has a surprisingly solid team on paper with the likes of Chara, Gaborik, Hossa and Halak, they might surprise a few.

The Czech team, to me is a complete disaster. The Swiss team is OK, but they just don't have the depth to compete with the top 6 or 7 in this tournament.

The rest, I really don't know much about, so I just picked teams in order of most to least impact NHL players.

Nailed it with these observations.