Alex Ovechkin Named Second Star of February

The NHL and NHL Players' Association publicly stated their commitment Wednesday to hold the World Cup of Hockey every four years, according to an ESPN.com report.

Team USA was the final team to announce their first 16 players for the World Cup of Hockey that will take place in Toronto this September.

In addition to Parise and Suter, Wild players Mikko Koivu and Mikael Granlund are on Team Finland and Thomas Vanek is on Team Europe.

As I mentioned before, the Blues had other inclusions on the worldwide rosters, as Vladimir Tarasenko was obviously named one of Team Russia's first 16, Alex Steen made Team Sweden, and Jori Lehtera made Team Finland.

All eight teams announced their preliminary rosters today. There's still time for them to be added as each team must fill out its 23-man roster by June 1. The Avalanche will also have players represented on the World Cup's two most unorthodox teams.

Kessel and Subban were among the most notable players left off the initial 16-man World Cup rosters unveiled Wednesday.

The top two picks from the 2015 draft will be teammates for the first time as part of the all-star combination of American and Canadian players.

Others named to Team Russia are goaltenders Sergei Bobrovsky (Blue Jackets), Semyon Varlamov (Avalanche) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (Lightning), defensemen Dmitry Kulikov (Panthers), Andrei Markov (Canadiens) and Dmitry Orlov (Capitals), and forwards Artem Anisimov (Blackhawks), Nikita Kucherov (Lightning), Nikolay Kulemin (Islanders), Vladislav Namestnikov (Lightning) and Vladimir Tarasenko (St. Louis Blues).

Olympic captain Sidney Crosby of the Penguins and alternate captains Jonathan Toews of the Blackhawks and Shea Weber of the Predators return.

Of course, given that Chiarelli's Oilers had just defeated Eichel's Sabres, 2-1, minutes earlier thanks to a pair of McDavid goals, Eichel's mind was elsewhere.

"It was a goal of mine going into the season and going into the next season to be on the World Cup team", Rinne said.

The omission of Kessel is even more stunning considering that Justin Abdelkader made Team USA.

Six Minnesotans are on the initial sixteen-player roster released by USA Hockey: Zach Parise, Minneapolis; TJ Oshie, Warroad; Derek Stepan, Hastings; Ryan McDonagh, St Paul; Dustin Byfuglien, Roseau; Blake Wheeler, Plymouth.

All four defencemen played at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, where Canada won its second consecutive gold medal.

Riding his best individual season and one of the best for a goaltender in National Hockey League history, Braden Holtby was named to Team Canada. Ovechkin, Malkin and Datsyuk are part of Russia's old guard from the past two Olympics, while Kuznetsov could provide a major spark after being left off the Olympic team in Sochi in 2014. Marian Hossa, a native of Slovakia, will play for Team Europe.