Canada’s Olympic hockey team could look like this — with Sidney Crosby on Connor McDavid’s wing

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This article was published 03/12/2021 (1723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

These are strange times in which we live.

For Doug Armstrong, it is a time of increased focus on the players still under serious consideration for an invitation to Team Canada as he and his management team work toward building consensus on an Olympic roster by early January.

For the NHL, meanwhile, it is a time of great uncertainty.

Players, coaches and team staff are being added to COVID-19 protocol with regularity. The threat of an outbreak that could derail a team’s season and interrupt the schedule is ever-present.

There is a healthy amount of skepticism within the hockey industry about whether the Beijing Games will even go ahead with the NHL’s participation. There’s probably a discussion to be had about whether it should, even with the collective will of the players wanting to be there and the league’s commitment in the July 2020 memorandum of understanding to finding a way to make it happen.

The urgent tone in a Nov. 29 memo circulated by the NHL to teams spoke to the anticipated challenges ahead. It required all holiday parties to be cancelled and instructed players to refrain from participating in public charity events or autograph sessions.

Then there was this instruction, underlined and written in bold type: “Players and Staff are reminded to limit the amount of exposure they have to large groups over the holidays, including large family gatherings, in order to reduce the risk of introducing infection into their team.”

This NHL season is all about finding a way to have every team play an 82-game season in front of as many paying customers as possible, and rising COVID caseloads plus the new Omicron variant threaten that objective.

It should be no surprise then that Nathan MacKinnon could be asked about the Beijing Olympics, as he was this week during a visit to Toronto, and say that he hasn’t been giving it much thought.

Until the Jan. 10 opt-out deadline comes and goes, nothing is assured.

Still, behind the scenes, the preparations continue.

An event like this one requires a massive logistical undertaking to pull off, with the Canadian management and coaching staff having met for a couple of days together in September but the full group, including players and trainers, unlikely to assemble in a room until they get to China.

The player selection process is approaching a critical stage, and some names included on the 56-man long list have already been struck off. There is particular focus around the bottom ends of the roster, where Canada must identify and define roles for players from a group of available talent that includes superstars and perennial all-stars.

Given the broader concerns at play, the Olympic tournament could serve as a bright light during another pandemic winter should it go ahead. It’s been more than five years since the last best-on-best event and a wave of new players would be getting their first crack at the game on this kind of stage.

It’s far from a given.

And Team Canada could be named in six weeks or less.

Strange times, indeed.

Sidney Crosby-Connor McDavid-Mitch Marner

Brad Marchand-Nathan MacKinnon-Steven Stamkos

John Tavares-Brayden Point-Mark Stone

Anthony Cirelli-Ryan O’Reilly-Patrice Bergeron

Zach Hyman

Bo Horvat

Skinny: The most important thing to keep in mind is that this isn’t an all-star team. There are roles to be filled, which helped earn Cirelli, O’Reilly and Hyman their spots as potential penalty-killers (alongside Bergeron, Marchand and maybe even Marner). Horvat can do that, too, and is one of the top faceoff men in the league. Canada is blessed with more high-end centre options than any other country and must therefore shift players to the wing. This roster contemplates moving Crosby to McDavid’s left side, something he’s believed to be willing to do, but he and MacKinnon could easily swap places as well. We’re leaving a ton of quality players at home with these picks, including Jonathan Huberdeau, Sean Couturier, Mark Scheifele, Mat Barzal and Tom Wilson. You run out of available spots quickly when you’re picking through players with Canadian passports.

Shea Theodore-Alex Pietrangelo

Darnell Nurse-Cale Makar

Morgan Rielly-Drew Doughty

MacKenzie Weegar-Aaron Ekblad

Skinny: What I like about this blue line is the built-in chemistry with two pairs that already log minutes together in the NHL: Theodore-Pietrangelo in Vegas and Weegar-Ekblad in Florida. Even though Mike Babcock isn’t part of the Olympic program this time around, the management team is still looking for an even balance of left- and right-handed shots, with an exception made here for the all-righty Panthers pair. We’ve made room for Doughty based on reputation and resumé, but his play over the next month after returning from injury bears watching. Nurse is also sidelined at the moment, but he earned a spot based on the body of work so far.

Carey Price

Jordan Binnington

Carter Hart

Skinny: What happens with this group could make or break the entire tournament. Price has yet to play a game this season after seeking treatment for substance use, but provided he gets back into the Montreal Canadiens crease before Beijing he’s going to be on the team. Binnington and Hart certainly aren’t locks, with Darcy Kuemper, Mackenzie Blackwood and Marc-André Fleury also options included on Team Canada’s long list. Hart actually has the best save percentage among that group this season and could be the national team No. 1 of the future. Binnington gets the nod after helping Armstrong’s St. Louis Blues win a Stanley Cup in 2019.

Chris Johnston is a Toronto-based journalist with a new gaming company. His work will be seen on the website and app for the new gaming company, and also in the Toronto Star. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterchris