The list is as follows:

Goalies: Nikolay Khabibulin (Edmonton, NHL), Evgeny Nabokov (San Jose, NHL), Semen Varlamor (Washington, NHL)

Defenders: Sergey Gonchar (Pittsburgh, NHL), Andrey Markov (Montreal, NHL), Fedor Tyutin (Columbus, NHL), Denis Grebeshkov (Edmonton, NHL), Daniil “Danny” Markov (Dynamo, KHL), Anton Volchenkov (Ottawa, NHL), Dmitry Kalinin (NY Rangers, NHL)

Forwards: Alexander Ovechkin (Washington, NHL), Alexander Semin (Washington, NHL), Sergey Fedorov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk, KHL), Evgeny Malkin (Pittsburgh, NHL), Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta, NHL), Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit, NHL), Alexey Kovalev (Ottawa, NHL), Alexander Frolov (Los Angeles, NHL), Alexander Radulov (Salavat Yulaev, KHL), Viktor Kozlov (Salavat Yulaev, KHL), Nikolay Zherdev (NY Rangers, NHL), Artem Anisimov (NY Rangers, NHL), Evgeny Artyukhin (Tampa Bay, NHL).

There are four KHL representatives among the 23 candidates, however all four players –  Danny Markov, Sergey Fedorov, Alexander Radulov and Viktor Kozlov – have vast NHL experience.

It should be noted that a number of World Ice Hockey champs – Aleksey Morozov, Danis Zaripov, Sergey Zinoviev, Aleksey Tereschenko, Oleg Tverdovsky as well as goalie Ilya Bryzgalov – didn’t see their names in the list. On the other hand, Nikolay Khabibulin’s and Alexey Kovalev’s inclusions look quite surprising, as neither has played in the national team for a long time for different reasons.

Anyway, this is just a preliminary list of candidates, which will most probably be changed by the end of the year.