The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China are fast approaching with the Opening Ceremony less than a month away. Canada’s Men’s Hockey team won’t be in action for 36 days (February 10th).
As everyone knows by now, the National Hockey League has decided that it will not send it’s players to the Olympics due to the rise of the Omicron variant and them needing to reschedule over 90 postponed games.
With the NHL now not going, many are wondering who will represent Canada and what the roster may look like. TSN’s Darren Dreger and The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler reported several names who are on Canada’s long list, with the only known player to say yes so far being Buffalo Sabres 2021 first overall pick, Owen Power.
Today, I’m going to take a crack at predicting what Canada’s roster will look like. Each Olympic roster is allowed 25 players, which will probably be broken down into 14 forwards, eight defencemen and three goaltenders.
Forwards (14)
- Cole Perfetti (Manitoba Moose – AHL)
- Mason McTavish (Peterborough Petes – OHL)
- Kent Johnson (University of Michigan – NCAA)
- Eric Staal (Free agent)
- Jordan Weal (AK Bars Kazan – KHL)
- Jack Quinn (Rochester Americans – AHL)
- Eric Fehr (AK Bars Kazan – KHL)
- David Desharnais (HC Fribourg-Gottéron – NL)
- Adam Tambellini (Rögle BK – SHL)
- Josh Ho-Sang (Toronto Marlies – AHL)
- Eric O’Dell (HC Dynamo Moscow – KHL)
- Landon Ferraro (Kölner Haie – DEL)
- Max Veronneau (Leksands IF – SHL)
- Ben Street (EHC Red Bull München – DEL)
Other options: Ryan Spooner (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg – KHL), Jack McBain (Boston College – NCAA), Chris Terry (Bridgeport Islanders – AHL).
Defencemen (8)
- Owen Power (University of Michigan – NCAA)
- Kaiden Guhle (Edmonton Oil Kings – WHL)
- Brandon Gormley (Dinamo Riga – KHL)
- Maxim Noreau (ZSC Lions – NL)
- Cody Franson (Hershey Bears – AHL)
- Chay Genoway (Brynäs IF – SHL)
- Jason Demers (AK Bars Kazan – KHL)
- Jesse Blacker (Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg – KHL)
Other options: Michael Del Zotto (Belleville Senators – AHL), Ryan O’Connor (Iserlohn Roosters – DEL), Tyler Wotherspoon (Utica Comets – AHL).
Goaltenders (3)
- Devan Dubnyk (Charlotte Checkers – AHL)
- Eddie Pasquale (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl – KHL)
- Matt Tompkins (Frölunda HC – SHL)
Other options: Landon Bow (Rytíři Kladno – CzechExtraliga), Devon Levi (Northeastern University – NCAA).
Canada group stage schedule is as follows.
- vs Germany (February 10th at 8:10am ET)
- vs United States (February 12th at 11:10pm ET)
- vs China (February 13th at 8:10am ET)