Russia's Olympic roster had nine KHL players on it; one goalie, two defensemen and six forwards. Some of those players, particularly the forwards, were surprising choices over the NHLers; Alexander Semin and Nail Yakupov aren't on the team, for example, while Alexander Popov and Alexei Tereshenko made the cut. That's interesting.
OLYMPIC ROSTERS: Canada | Sweden | Slovakia | Czech Republic
If the people who selected the team thought they were the best choices, so be it. Soin and Kokarev are there to build a shutdown fourth line, per Dmitry Chesnokov, and that's fine. Pumping up the KHL's reputation is always on the plate, though, and there's no better way to do that then say, "Our guys made it over theirs."
UPDATE: Semin eventually was added to the roster, replacing Soin.
GOALTENDERS
Sergei Bobrovsky Semyon Varlamov Alexander Yeryomenko
DEFENSEMEN
Anton Belov Alexei Emelin Andrei Markov Evgeny Medvedev Nikita Nikitin Ilya Nikulin Fedor Tyutin Slava Voynov
FORWARDS
Artem Anisimov Pavel Datsyuk Denis Kokarev Ilya Kovalchuk Nikolai Kulemin Evgeni Malkin Valeri Nichushkin Alex Ovechkin Alexander Popov Alexander Radulov Sergei Soin (replaced by Alexander Semin) Vladimir Tarasenko Alexei Tereshenko Viktor Tikhonov
