Connor Hellebuyck was part of the electrifying under-23 Team North America squad at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
But having just completed his rookie season and with only 26 games of NHL experience to his name, Hellebuyck didn’t see the ice.
Now eight years later, the American goalie still hasn’t competed in a best-on-best tournament.
“I’ve just been waiting to throw that jersey on. My window’s now, I’m in my prime and I’d love to be part of it,” the Winnipeg Jets goalie said at NHL all-star media day on Thursday.
On Friday, commissioner Gary Bettman announced that NHL players would return to the Olympics in 2026 and 2030. The 2026 Games will be held in Italy, while it is expected that France will be chosen to host the 2030 Games later this year.
The NHL also announced a four-team international tournament for 2025 that will include Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland. The Four Nations Face-off will be held next February in two yet-to-be-named cities in Canada and the United States.
“We know how important international competition is to our players. We know how much they love and want to represent the countries from which they’re from, and we think this ia great stage for the best on best in what obviously we all believe is the best sport,” Bettman said.
NHL players haven’t participated in either of the last two Olympics. Nor has there been a World Cup since that 2016 edition, and even that tournament featured two gimmicky teams, with North America consisting of under-23 players and a Team Europe covering most of the continent except a few countries.
Eager to compete alongside fellow stars
In the meantime, the NHL is reportedly putting together a four-team tournament for 2025 between Canada, the U.S., Sweden and Finland. It’s still not a true best-on-best — not without the Russians or the Czechs — but it’s closer.
Speaking on Thursday, Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid said he wants to compete at the Olympics “extremely badly.”
“I would say that a lot of other guys in my age group would feel the same way,” he said. “I think about the U-23 team, a lot of guys that are here, Nate [MacKinnon], guys like Cale Makar and Jack Eichel and Auston [Matthews, all these guys that haven’t had a chance to represent their country at a best on best. I think it’s something that we’re all hoping to do.”
McDavid, left, and MacKinnon, right, both said they were excited about the prospect of competing at the 2026 Olympics. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)
MacKinnon, the Cole Harbour, N.S., native from the same hometown as Sidney Crosby, echoed the sentiment.
“I’d love to go. I grew up idolizing Team Canadas and we’ve all missed two or three now, so definitely want to get one in, or hopefully a couple before I retire,” he said.
“We have the best player in the league with Connor and hopefully get another one out of Sid. I still think he’s ageless, so I’d love to play with him and trying to win with him would be pretty special as well.”
Hockey Canada president and CEO Katherine Henderson said representing your country at the Olympics is the “pinnacle” of the sport.
“We are excited to begin the process of building teams that include the best Canadian NHL players from across the country for the first time since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, and to surround those athletes with high-quality management, coaching and support staffs that will do everything they can to help our athletes achieve their goal of winning Olympic gold medals,” Henderson said.
Indeed, multiple factors have kept the best men’s players in the world out of the Olympics, from insurance issues between the NHL, NHLPA and IIHF in 2018 to the pandemic in 2022.
On Thursday, Columbus Blue Jackets NHLPA representative Boone Jenner expressed hope of a deal coming together for 2026.
“I know the [Players’ Assocation is] working really hard behind the scenes with the league to find something of a solution there, hopefully get something set in stone,” said Canadian Boone Jenner, the captain of the Columbus Blue Jackets and the team’s PA representative.
Now one day later, it’s official.
“We know that hockey fans worldwide have long been anticipating the next best-on-best international competition, and now they can finally see some of their favourite players represent their countries and line up together,” said NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh.
“We made it,” IIHF president Luc Tardif added. “That’s two years work and more intense the last six months.”
Players’ sexual assault charges not a sign of hockey culture problem: NHL commissioner
When pressed about whether he felt the recent arrests of players for sexual assault pointed toward a systemic culture issue in the NHL and the sport, league commissioner Gary Bettman said to make that characterization would be ‘both inaccurate and unfair’ and that ‘99.9 per cent of the players … conduct themselves appropriately.’
‘Everybody would be excited’
Minnesota Wild star Kirill Kaprizov is one of just a few NHLers remaining with Olympic experience, having played for the Russian team in 2018 before jumping over to North America.
In Pyeongchang, Kaprizov scored the golden goal in overtime.
“Of course I’d like to play at the Olympics for the Russian team, as any Russian NHL player and any player that plays in Russia. Definitely would be happy to represent the national team,” Kaprizov said.
The Russian flag was excluded from each of the past two Winter Olympics due to sanctions over doping and the invasion of Ukraine.
Kaprizov celebrates the Russian team’s gold medal at the 2018 Olympics. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Drafted in 2015, Kyle Connor is another player, like his Jets teammate Hellebuyck, who’s missed out on the opportunity to play best-on-best internationally.
Though he said he and Hellebuyck don’t talk about it too often — they are NHL players who may not want to jinx their spot on the team two years out, after all — he said he is itching for the opportunity.
“I think everybody would be excited even if it’s a different format with the four teams, whether it’s exhibition tournament or however they’re going to format it, you know there’s gonna be some competition and everybody’s going to want to win that game,” Connor said.
By the time the Olympics come around, most of that original U-23 team will be at least 30, having missed out on a decade of top international competition.
There’s no getting that time back now. But with Friday’s news, at least all those fantasy Team Canada lines are closer to reality.
NEW YORK – Toronto Blue Jays reliever Chad Green and Canadian slugger Tyler O’Neill of the Boston Red Sox were named finalists for the Major League Baseball Players’ Association’s American League comeback player award on Monday.
Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet was the other nominee.
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge, Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. were named player of the year finalists.
The award winners, selected via player voting, will be named Saturday before Game 2 of the World Series.
Green, who missed most of the 2022 and ’23 seasons after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was a high-leverage option for the Blue Jays this past season and filled in at closer over the second half of the campaign.
The right-hander converted his first 16 save opportunities and finished the year with a 4-6 record, 17 saves and a 3.21 earned-run average over 53 appearances.
O’Neill, a native of Burnaby, B.C., also endured back-to-back injury-plagued seasons in ’22 and ’23.
After being traded to the Red Sox in the off-season, O’Neill set an MLB record by hitting a homer in his fifth straight Opening Day. He finished with 31 homers on the year and had an OPS of .847.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.
Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.
Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.
Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.
He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.
Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.
The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.
The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.
As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.
Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.
The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.
“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.
“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.
“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.
With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.
The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.
But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.
Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.
Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.
