It’s officially 2018 on the calendar and with that all eyes will be on South Korea in February, as Pyeongchang will lay host to the Winter Olympics.
Today, Hockey Canada announced the 25 players they’ll be sending to compete in Men’s Ice Hockey. You can see that roster by clicking HERE
The NHL will not be sending players to the Winter Olympics in 2018 leaving the roster less than to be desired for the hardcore hockey fan.
Today we will look at what could have been.
| Forwards | Brad Marchand | Sidney Crosby | Patrice Bergeron |
| Taylor Hall | Connor McDavid | Mark Scheifele | |
| Steven Stamkos | John Tavares | Nathan MacKinnon | |
| Jamie Benn | Jonathan Toews | Tyler Seguin | |
| Defenseman | Duncan Keith | Shea Weber | |
| P.K Subban | Drew Doughty | ||
| Morgan Rielly | Alex Pietrangelo | ||
| Goalies | Carey Price | Braden Holtby | Corey Crawford |
| Extra Skaters | Logan Couture | Jaden Schwartz | Brent Burns |
| Marc-Edouard Vlasic |
The Rundown
Forwards
On paper, Canada is the strongest team in the world. Crosby, McDavid, Tavares and Toews down the middle is unmatched and Canada’s fourth line can skate with most teams first lines.
Where most people would say that Toews is a lock on this team, I personally believe that Jaden Schwartz is having a better year.
Moving Seguin to play center on the fourth line would force Schwartz to play on his off wing, but would provide more upfront scoring; I mean, it’s not like Canada lacks it.
Defence
The defenceman for Canada are completely interchangeable. One would imagine they would all get play throughout the tournament.
Subban quarterbacking the second powerplay unit for Canada would provide him more ice time if he was to become the 7th defenseman.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic has always been a staple member of Team Canada, and while he isn’t the flashiest defenseman and is often overlooked mostly due to his lack of offense compared to others, he is by far one of the best pure shutdown defenseman in the NHL
Goaltenders
For as long as Carey Price is playing in the NHL he’ll always be the best in world when it comes to international play. Carey Price when playing for Team Canada is simply lights out.
While other countries might be able to match up closely #1 vs #1 with Team Canada, Canada’s depth at goaltending throughout the tournament is unmatched.
The third goalie for Canada is pretty interchangeable. Martin Jones, Devan Dubnyk and Matt Murray are all names Canada could look to bring in as the third goaltender.
In Conclusion:
Canada should still be able to medal, however the Russians will be coming into the event with the best roster and should be gold favourites. The power five countries of Canada, USA, Finland, Russia and Sweden should still be favourites to take Olympic gold but the bottom of the table should be able to compete more closely this year.
Hopefully the NHL attends the Beijing Olympics in 2022 so we can see McDavid in his prime on the Olympic stage.
