NHL
Team Canada is watching.
The men’s Olympic team’s braintrust is scheduled to scout more than 150 NHL games live between puck drop on the regular season next month and Nov. 10, when the management group, led by general manager Doug Armstrong, will meet again one day ahead of the NHL GMs meeting in Toronto.
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“What we’re going to do is go out and watch players live to give them the best opportunity,” Armstrong told The Athletic on Monday. “The way we look at it as management is, we owe it to the players that want to be Olympians to give them live views so they can put their best foot forward.
“We want to see as much as we can so that it’s not second-hand information, but management group eyes on it,” he continued. “And then we whittle the list down.”
So be prepared to see Armstrong, Jim Nill, Don Sweeney, Kyle Dubas, Julien BriseBois, Ryan Getzlaf and Scott Salmond in NHL press boxes all over the continent this fall
By the time the group meets in Toronto, Armstrong wants to have started removing names from the long list.
“Our hope is to get to that November meeting at 35 guys (who) have percolated to the top,” Armstrong said.
That doesn’t mean a player who is injured can’t play his way back onto the smaller list. It’s a flexible process. But the onus is on starting to chip away at the list right from the opening month of the season.
“You have to start eliminating players from it,” Armstrong said. “That’s just reality of how you do this.”
Teams have until Dec. 31 to submit their full 25-man rosters. Each country named its first six players in June, with Team Canada announcing Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point, Sam Reinhart and Cale Makar.
That’s two more roster spots than teams had for the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, although Team Canada ended up using 24 players at 4 Nations because of injuries.
The question is just how many roster spots from that 4 Nations championship roster will truly be in play.
“It was interesting. We did an exercise, our management group, in the middle of the 4 Nations. We asked how many spots you think might be open. It went from three to six,” Armstrong. “You’re adding two roster spots, too. There’s potential for anywhere from 70 percent to 80 percent of the team to be the same. Injuries or great play can make that number even lower. But there’s no expectation that we’ll roll out 23 (from 4 Nations) plus two. In saying that, it could be that. They’re going to tell us; we’re not going to tell them.”
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The 4 Nations guys have proven something important to the management group at best-on-best, but there’s some wiggle room in that. Some players not at the top of the list right now will force their way up.
“Not a lot has changed in a few months from those guys at 4 Nations, but other guys have proven through the Stanley Cup playoffs and the world championships that they’re pushing to get in that group,” Armstrong said. “But it’s not like it’s been four years with that roster. It’s been four months of hockey.”
Team Canada invited 42 players (26 forwards, 13 defensemen and three goalies) to Calgary late last month for the orientation camp. The fact that only the three 4 Nations goalies were invited raised eyebrows. But Armstrong said people are probably reading the opposite into it.
“People see three goalies and think, ‘That must be their three goalies. They love those three,’” he said. “We do respect those three (Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault). They’re three great goalies. But there’s probably five others, or many more than that, that could make the team.
“You’re having a camp and you want to cap it at a certain number of players. If you invite five or six more goalies, that means you’re taking three more D or three more forwards out. So the thought process was, this is the most open competition. We’re going to take the three best people playing on Jan. 1, and their resumes will be part of it. But that’s why it’s great having that extra month of observation.”
Armstrong added, to make sure there was no ambiguity to it: “Why we brought only three wasn’t because it’s (a) closed (competition). It’s so wide open, but the other option would have been to invite 10 goalies, which wasn’t conducive to what we were doing at camp.”
That message was communicated to other goalies on the Olympic radar. They’re still very much in the mix, and Team Canada is watching how they start their seasons.
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What Armstrong wouldn’t say, but I will, is the No. 1 job is Binnington’s to lose after his 4 Nations heroics. But after that, it truly is a wide-open competition. So whether it’s Darcy Kuemper or Mackenzie Blackwood, Logan Thompson, Stuart Skinner or, heck, if Joel Hofer gets hot out of the gates, Team Canada is opening the NHL season feeling the goalie competition is the most wide open of the three positional groups.
Up front, there are only nine spots up for grabs after five forwards were named in June.
Young phenoms Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini were invited to camp last month, and it wasn’t just for show.
“No, they’re top players,” Armstrong said. “Celebrini, quite honestly, reminds me a bit of Drew Doughty (at the 2010 Olympics). He played that year in the NHL, went to worlds, wasn’t really on the radar for the Olympic team, but all of a sudden had a great start and makes the Olympic team. Celebrini was very, very good last year in a difficult situation. He went to worlds, and he was rubbing shoulders with Crosby and MacKinnon. His skill level and hockey IQ was at the area where these two guys felt playing with him would benefit their game. That’s a hell of a statement.’’
Bedard skipped on the worlds but remains very much on the Olympic radar.
“Everyone knows his resume,” Armstrong said. “He’s a driven individual. If he pops this year … and I mean, he’s going to pop (at some point), but if he pops right out of the gate…’’
There’s a realistic chance both Celebrini and Bedard pop out of the gates. All the more reason for Team Canada to make sure they were among the 42 players at camp last month.
“Having them around the group was beneficial,” Armstrong said. “We’re going to take 25 players that we believe can play at any point in the tournament. We think having those young guys there probably benefited them more than the next two they would have replaced, who were more veteran.’’
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Overall, the camp last month set the tone.
“I think it was very beneficial,” Armstrong said. “For me, from my standpoint, it served two very important purposes.”
1) Armstrong feels it allowed the NHL players to understand they’re part of a bigger Hockey Canada Olympic program, with the women’s national team and Para hockey team also part of the same week last month.
2) For the men’s Olympic team, Armstrong said it was good to address the logistics with players: uniforms and sizing and pictures and travel plans and rules in Olympic Village — all the little details.
It also gave everyone a chance to get to know each other better — to strengthen the bond some created at 4 Nations.
And, of course, No. 87 was in the middle of it all, as Chris Johnston chronicled in Calgary.
Sid being Sid.
“Yeah, that’s just the norm for me now,” Armstrong said. “I’ve been fortunate to be around him. That’s just who he is. He stayed consistent to character. He’s a great leader. He has the ability, a lot like Wayne (Gretzky) did, when you’re with them, everybody realizes they’re different, but they never act like they’re different. That’s a great quality. Sidney was as strong as always.’’
Team Canada hasn’t announced its Olympic captain yet, but let’s be real, it’s Crosby. There’s zero debate internally or externally. Look for the team to make that official in early January.
In the meantime, the brain trust — which also includes an important voice in head coach Jon Cooper, who will have more sway in roster selections than past Canadian Olympic coaches — needs to get started on cutting down that list of players in a hurry.
Let the national debate(s) begin.
(Photo of Doug Armstrong: Dave Sandford / NHLI via Getty Images)
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Pierre LeBrun has been a senior NHL columnist for The Athletic since 2017. He has been an NHL Insider for TSN since 2011 following six years as a panelist on Hockey Night In Canada. He also appears regularly on RDS in Montreal. Pierre previously covered the NHL for ESPN.com and The Canadian Press. Follow Pierre on Twitter @PierreVLeBrun
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