Predicting Russia's 2022 Olympic roster

For the third and final roster prediction in my series, I've decided to go with Russia. For the 2022 Games, they'll be known as the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) due to recent sanctions for state-wide doping in international sporting events.

ROC, the reigning Olympic gold medalists, will be in Group B with the Czech Republic, Switzerland, a nation from the third qualifying tournament. The qualifying team could be one of twelve teams depending on their IIHF rank when they win the tournament. Those teams are Slovakia, Belarus, Austria, Poland, Latvia, France, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Denmark, South Korea, and Slovenia.

If you didn't read my previous predictions for the United States or Canada, each nation is allowed to bring 22 skaters and three goaltenders to the Olympics. I'm going to break it down into 14 forwards and eight defencemen as that's what most countries tend to go with.

Forwards (14)

- Alexander Ovechkin (Washington Capitals)
- Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins)
- Kirill Kaprizov (RFA)
- Andrei Svechnikov (Carolina Hurricanes)
- Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning)
- Artemi Panarin (New York Rangers)
- Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis Blues)
- Evgeny Dadonov (Vegas Golden Knights)
- Pavel Buchnevich (St. Louis Blues)
- Mikhail Grigorenko (CSKA Moscow)
- Vladislav Namestnikov (Detroit Red Wings)
- Vadim Shipachyov (Dynamo Moscow)
- Konstantin Okulov (CSKA Moscow)
- Alexander Radulov (Dallas Stars)

Defencemen (8)

- Mikhail Sergachev (Tampa Bay Lightning)
- Dmitry Orlov (Washington Capitals)
- Ivan Provorov (Philadelphia Flyers)
- Nikita Zadorov (Calgary Flames)
- Vladislav Gavrikov (Columbus Blue Jackets)
- Dmitri Kulikov (Minnesota Wild)
- Artem Zub (Ottawa Senators)
- Alexander Romanov (Montreal Canadiens)

Goaltenders (3)

- Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning)
- Igor Shesterkin (New York Rangers)
- Ilya Sorokin (New York Islanders)

There are two forwards that are off my list due to separate reasons. Washington's Evgeny Kuznetsov is in the middle of a four-year suspension by the IIHF after testing positive for a banned substance. His suspension will be over on June 12th 2023.

The second player I left off is Ilya Kovalchuk. While Kovalchuk has had a ton of success at the international level with Russia, he is reportedly considering retirement according to Avangard Omsk general manager Alexei Volkov.

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