Olympic Men’s Hockey Roster: Team Canada Not Favoured For Gold

The 2018 Winter Olympics will begin Feb. 9 in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Here’s a glance at the competition.

Money Talks, NHL Walks

Since 1998, the NHL had taken a two-week-plus break in February during Olympic years to allow its players to compete in the biggest hockey showcase event in the world. It was a rousing success for the league popularity-wise, with Team Canada winning gold in 2002 (Salt Lake City), 2010 (Vancouver) and 2014 (Sochi).

TV ratings in Canada and the USA were through the roof those past two Games. The Czech Republic took gold in 1998 (Nagano) and Sweden in 2006 (Turin). The NHL had sent a total of 706 players through all those Games, an average of 141 per season.

Why isn’t the NHL in Pyeongchang? Like just about everything with big business, it comes down to money. Yes, NHL owners weren’t thrilled with the big break during the regular season. But this decision largely came down to the fact that the International Olympic Committee had been paying the NHL’s participation costs associated with travel, insurance and accommodations, etc., but wasn’t doing so this year. The NHL and IOC couldn’t come to an agreement, so that was that even though many prominent players like the Oilers’ Connor McDavid were outraged over the decision.

So which players will be competing? Think retired NHL guys, those in the AHL (but not on two-way contracts) or playing in Europe. The new rules would seem to give Russia the advantage because the second-best league in the world is the Kontintenal Hockey League (KHL) in that country.

Russians, Canadians Teams To Beat

Russia is the Sports Interaction betting favourite for the gold at +220 – it says OAR on the site because technically Russia is banned from the Games and all athletes from that country are designated as Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR). No Russian anthem will be played for any gold medal won.

Team Canada is a +250 second-favourite and is in Group A with the Czech Republic, South Korea and Switzerland. The Canadians open preliminary round play on Feb. 15 (7:10 EST) against Switzerland. On Feb. 16 (10:10 p.m. EST) they face the Czech Republic and Feb. 18 (7:10 a.m. EST) it’s South Korea. Each group winner and the second-place team with the best record receives a bye into the second round. All the others compete in qualification playoffs.

Each team has a roster of 25 players, and 13 of Canada’s are from Russia’s KHL, four from the Swiss league, three each from Sweden and the AHL, and one each from Germany and Austria. There are no junior players on the roster.

The biggest names on Team Canada likely are Chris Kelly, who played 833 regular-season NHL games (most of any on this roster) with the Senators and Bruins, ex-Flames forward Rene Bourque, former Canucks and Oilers centre Derek Roy, former Canucks and Flames winger Mason Raymond, and one-time Leafs, Oilers and Canadiens goalie Ben Scrivens. Twenty-one of Canada’s players have played in at least one NHL game. The average age is 31, with Kelly and defenceman Chris Lee the oldest at 37. Christian Thomas, who has 27 games of NHL experience with the Canadiens, Rangers and Coyotes, is the youngest at 25.

Sean Burke is Canada’s GM with former Canucks coach Willie Desjardins behind the bench. Canada opens training camp starts Jan. 28 in Latvia, with exhibition games in Riga on Feb. 4 against Latvia and Feb. 6 against Belarus.

Team USA is +1000 to win its first Olympic ice hockey gold since the miracle in Lake Placid in 1980. The American captain is Brian Gionta, who played for Team USA in the 2006 Olympics, played in 1,006 regular-season NHL games and won a Stanley Cup in 2003 with the Devils. Gionta is the only Olympian on the USA roster. Tony Granato is the head coach. He played on the U.S. team that competed at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary.

2018 TEAM CANADA ROSTER

Forwards

René Bourque (Lac La Biche, Alta./Djurgårdens IF, SHL)

Gilbert Brulé (Edmonton/Kunlun Red Star, KHL)

Andrew Ebbett (Vernon, B.C./SC Bern, NLA)

Quinton Howden (Oakbank, Man./HC Dinamo Minsk, KHL)

Chris Kelly (Toronto, Ont./Belleville, AHL)

Rob Klinkhammer (Lethbridge, Alta./Ak Bars Kazan, KHL)

Brandon Kozun (Calgary/Lokomotiv Yaroslav, KHL)

Maxim Lapierre (Brossard, Que./HC Lugano, NLA)

Eric O’Dell (Ottawa/HC Sochi, KHL)

Mason Raymond (Cochrane, Alta./SC Bern, NLA)

Derek Roy (Rockland, Ont./Linköping HC, SHL)

Christian Thomas (Toronto/Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, AHL)

Linden Vey (Wakaw, Sask./Barys Astana, KHL)

Wojtek Wolski (Toronto/Metallurg Magnitogorsk, KHL)

Defense

Stefan Elliott (Vancouver/HV71, SHL)

Chay Genoway (Morden, Man./Lada Togliatti, KHL)

Cody Goloubef (Oakville, Ont./Stockton, AHL)

Marc-André Gragnani (L’Île-Bizard, Que./HC Dinamo Minsk, KHL)

Chris Lee (MacTier, Ont./Metallurg Magnitogorsk, KHL)

Maxim Noreau (Montreal/SC Bern, NLA)

Mat Robinson (Calgary/CSKA Moscow, KHL)

Karl Stollery (Camrose, Alta./Dinamo Riga, KHL)

Goalies

Justin Peters (Blyth, Ont./Kölner Haie, DEL)

Kevin Poulin (Montreal/Medvescak Zagreb, EBEL)

Ben Scrivens (Spruce Grove, Alta./Salavat Yulaev Ufa, KHL)