This year it absolutely did matter. There's no world where Kuznetsov and Chayka shouldn't be on Team Russia in a top-pairing or at least top-four role. And they were on the team last year!
Russia barely has any high-end defence prospects to begin with. They only had four top-50 NHL picks who were eligible for this tournament. They left three of those guys (Kuznetsov, Chayka, Grushnikov, all CHL players) off the roster entirely in favour of undrafted MHL players who have barely ever been on the NHL's radar, and it showed tonight.
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