With the NHL officially pulling players out of the 2022 Winter Olympics due to numerous COVID-19 disruptions to the regular-season schedule, Hockey Canada now has less than six weeks to build a squad of players to compete in the men’s hockey tournament.
While that isn’t a lot of time, Hockey Canada vice president Scott Salmond says work has already been done on what the new roster will look like in anticipation of the NHL’s decision.
“I think we’ve always prided ourselves on being prepared regardless of if that’s an NHL plan or not,” Salmond said in an interview on The FAN Drive Time Wednesday. “We do have and always had players that were non-NHL players on our long-list so we’re thankful for that because those are the players we’re going to be selecting from.”
Salmond said Shane Doan will assume the general manager responsibilities for Team Canada from Blues GM Doug Armstrong and Claude Julien will be the head coach in Beijing, replacing Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper. He added that the organization will look to fill out staff around Doan and Julien, but veteran Hockey Canada scout Blair MacKasey has been watching players in Europe since September in the anticipation of the situation the organization now finds itself in.
As for the players, Salmond said the team could feature a number of people familiar to NHL fans and added that the roster Canada sent to the Channel One Cup in Moscow earlier this month gives some indication of who might be considered. The team will be made up mostly of players currently playing in Europe, but more discussions will need to be had before it can be determined whether NCAA players and those in the AHL will be allowed to play.
“Now we’re back grinding out here on some video and using our network of Canadians across the globe, to make sure we can select the possible group of players — similar to 2018 — and take a run at a gold medal,” Salmond said.
“I think that people will be surprised when they see what our roster is, of the type of players and some of the recognizable names.”
Hockey Canada was expected to finalize a roster of NHL players in early January and the management team, led by Armstrong, spent more than a year scouting NHL players.
In an interview on The FAN Drive Time Wednesday, Armstrong said most of the roster had been selected but added that there were still some decisions towards the bottom of the lineup that ultimately won’t ever be made.
“We had our last in-person meeting (during) the first week of December in Florida where we all got together as management and then incorporated the coaches in the calls,” Armstrong said. “We were probably three lines deep and four defencemen, two pair, deep on the back end as what we were determining as locks at that point. And we were going to spend the next, at that point, six weeks honing in the rest of that group to fill out that roster.”
Armstrong refused to tip his hand on who those locks were, only revealing Nathan MacKinnon was among them, leaving fans no answers to the many roster debates that have taken place from coast-to-coast this year. While the roster ultimately won’t be what fans had in mind when the NHL announced it was returning to the Games earlier this year, Salmond said he was confident the group that does play will do their best to make Canada proud.
“It’s not NHL players, it’s not best-on-best, we get that,” he said. “But I know the guys that we end up picking and going over there will have the same type of approach and feeling of responsibility to try to deliver it for Canada.”
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Canucks announced Tuesday that defenceman Alex Edler will sign a one-day contract in order to officially retire as a member of the NHL team.
The signing will be part of a celebration of Edler’s career held Oct. 11 when the Canucks host the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Canucks selected Edler, from Ostersund, Sweden, in the third round (91st overall) of the 2004 NHL draft.
He played in 925 career games for the Canucks between the 2006-07 and 2020-21 seasons, ranking fourth in franchise history and first among defencemen.
The 38-year-old leads all Vancouver defencemen with 99 goals, 310 assists and 177 power-play points with the team.
Edler also appeared in 82 career post-season contests with Vancouver and was an integral part of the Canucks’ run to the 2011 Stanley Cup final, putting up 11 points (2-9-11) across 25 games.
“I am humbled and honoured to officially end my career and retire as a member of the Vancouver Canucks,” Edler said in a release. “I consider myself lucky to have started my career with such an outstanding organization, in this amazing city, with the best fans in the NHL. Finishing my NHL career where it all began is something very special for myself and my family.”
Edler played two seasons for Los Angeles in 2021-22 and 2022-23. He did not play in the NHL last season.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women will face World Cup champion Spain in an international friendly next month.
Third-ranked Spain will host Canada on Oct. 25 at Estadio Francisco de la Hera in Almendralejo.
The game will be the first for the Canadian women since the Paris Olympics, where they lost to Germany in a quarterfinal penalty shootout after coach Bev Priestman was sent home and later suspended for a year by FIFA over her part in Canada’s drone-spying scandal.
In announcing the Spain friendly, Canada Soccer said more information on the interim women’s coaching staff for the October window will come later. Assistant coach Andy Spence took charge of the team in Priestman’s absence at the Olympics.
Spain finished fourth in Paris, beaten 1-0 by Germany in the bronze-medal match.
Canada is winless in three previous meetings (0-2-1) with Spain, most recently losing 1-0 at the Arnold Clark Cup in England in February 2022.
The teams played to a scoreless draw in May 2019 in Logroñés, Spain in a warm-up for the 2019 World Cup. Spain won 1-0 in March 2019 at the Algarve Cup in São João da Venda, Portugal.
Spain is a powerhouse in the women’s game these days.
It won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2022 and was runner-up in 2018. And it ousted Canada 2-1 in the round of 16 of the current U-20 tournament earlier this month in Colombia before falling 1-0 to Japan after extra time in the quarterfinal.
Spain won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2018 and 2022 and has finished on the podium on three other occasions.
FC Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmati (2023) and Alexia Putellas (2021 and ’22) have combined to win the last three Women’s Ballon d’Or awards.
And Barcelona has won three of the last four UEFA Women’s Champions League titles.
“We continue to strive to diversify our opponent pool while maintaining a high level of competition.” Daniel Michelucci, Canada Soccer’s director of national team operations, said in a statement. “We anticipate a thrilling encounter, showcasing two of the world’s top-ranked teams.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
