HabsWorld.net -- 

Friday was the deadline for the final additions to the rosters for the upcoming World Cup.  Four Habs made the initial rosters while only one other was added amongst each country’s final groups of seven.

Alexei Emelin was the lone addition as he was named to Team Russia.  Emelin has been a veteran of Russia’s National Team program, suiting up in two World Junior tournaments, an under-18 tourney, one Olympic Games, and five World Championships.

In somewhat of a surprising decision, Team North America (players 23 and under) opted not to add Alex Galchenyuk to their roster but chose to add projected #1 pick Auston Matthews instead.  He was one of two 30-goal scorers from last season to not make the squad, the other being Boone Jenner of the Blue Jackets.

On the controversial side, P.K. Subban was not named to Team Canada.  The Canadians added a pair of right shooting defencemen among their final three in Brent Burns and Alex Pietrangelo.  The latter is likely the 7th blueliner so it appears that they were more comfortable with a safer extra on their blueline corps.  Brendan Gallagher, a longshot based on his usage at the World Championships, also didn’t make the final cut.  Canada has notified a handful of players that they are the potential extras in case of injury although there’s no word if either Gallagher or Subban are among that group.

One other longshot to get a look was Lars Eller who was eligible for Team Europe.  However, their management group opted to add Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Tobias Rieder which comes as a bit of a surprise.

The other four Habs who will join Emelin in the tournament are:

Andrei Markov (Russia)
Max Pacioretty (USA)
Tomas Plekanec (Czech Republic)
Carey Price (Canada)

The tournament kicks off September 17th and ends October 1st.