By Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Julian McKenzie
Team Canada revealed its 23-man roster for February’s 4 Nations Face-Off match on Wednesday.
Forwards Mitch Marner, Sam Reinhart, Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, Travis Konecny, Mark Stone and Seth Jarvis have been added to Canada’s roster, with Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Theodore, Travis Sanheim, Devon Toews, Colton Parayko and Josh Morrissey becoming a member of as defensemen.
Forwards Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point, Brad Marchand and Sidney Crosby, together with defenseman Cale Makar had already been named as the primary six members of Team Canada in June.
Canada’s goaltending has been topic to a lot debate in anticipation of Wednesday’s roster reveal. The Canadians’ trio consists of Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault.
Canada is being led by Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper behind the bench, flanked by assistant coaches Bruce Cassidy, Pete DeBoer, Rick Tocchet, Mishka Donskov and Lightning video coach James Emery. Cooper can be anticipated to steer Canada on the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
The 4 Nations Face-Off will run Feb. 12 to twenty in Montreal and Boston.
Full roster
(Note: Highlighted gamers had already been named to the roster.)
Snubs
Every Team Canada has extra certified forwards than the variety of accessible roster spots, so essentially the most notable omissions could be discovered there in Zach Hyman, John Tavares, Mark Scheifele and Connor Bedard.
Hyman is coming off a 70-goal season (postseason included) spent taking part in alongside Connor McDavid. Tavares has been in a high kind for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season and has an unlimited worldwide resume that features serving as Canada’s captain on the IIHF World Hockey Championship in May. Scheifele is scoring at higher than a point-per-game tempo for the high-flying Winnipeg Jets. And Bedard is a 19-year-old wunderkind who rewrote the report e-book whereas representing his nation on the world junior championship.
The snubs on the again finish embrace Evan Bouchard and Noah Dobson, aged 25 and 24, respectively. They’re each high-end puck distributors coming off massive seasons. — Chris Johnston
Surprises
Jarvis jumps off the web page because the participant least anticipated to battle his means onto this model of Team Canada. He doesn’t have the resume of many different gamers left at house. And at 5-foot-10, he doesn’t have the scale, both.
But the 22-year-old Carolina Hurricanes winger does possess slick playmaking skill and a aggressive spirit, which makes him a variety with upside. He may turn out to be a Team Canada fixture if issues go nicely.
On the again finish, few noticed Parayko securing a spot amongst Canada’s high seven, however as an enormous man with Stanley Cup-winning pedigree who’s able to logging robust minutes, he introduced extra safety than another decisions.
Montembeault isn’t a shock, per se, however his save share this season is lagging behind Cam Talbot, Logan Thompson, Mackenzie Blackwood, Marc-Andre Fleury and Darcy Kuemper. Each of these different Canadian goalies might be watching the match from house. — Johnston
Expectations
Fair or not, any participant that pulls a Canadian nationwide staff sweater over their head is predicted to win. That’s very true in best-on-best males’s competitors, the place Canada has gained 4 of the previous 5 tournaments and 9 of 13 total.
Even with the nation’s decade of dominance now a great distance within the rear-view mirror, the excessive hopes stay.
Canada will attempt to overwhelm opponents with its depth. Cooper can run out McDavid, Crosby, Point and Cirelli down the center. If for no matter purpose that isn’t working, he’s obtained MacKinnon and Bennett as ready-made choices to slip to heart.
And for good measure, Cooper’s obtained Makar to function the heartbeat of a blue line that includes a good mix of dimension, smarts and elite decision-makers.
Even with the questions (or doubts) in purpose, this can be a roster constructed to execute at a excessive degree that intends to maintain opponents at bay in hard-fought video games by limiting errors. Canada expects three objectives to be ok to win towards any staff within the match. — Johnston
Required studying
Other rosters
(Photo of Mitch Marner scoring on Jordan Binnington: Jeff Curry / USA Today)
