TORONTO — Canada shortened its list of men\u2019s hockey prospects for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 when the management group met for several hours Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re down to a much more manageable number of players that we\u2019re going to really hone in on in the next month,\u201d general manager Doug Armstrong said. \u201cOur next meeting will be the first week of December. We\u2019re hoping probably to have, I\u2019d say, 80 percent of the team in pencil then and then use that last month to round out that roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each team\u2019s 25-man roster is due Dec. 31, although how the rosters will be announced has yet to be decided. Armstrong said Canada would scout potential replacement players in January in case of injuries. The tournament will be Feb. 11-22.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went obviously by forwards, [defensemen], goalies,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cHad a good debate on everyone. Confirmed our locks that were there, and not many were added to that, because the competition was so great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armstrong said Canada\u2019s list of prospects now numbers in the high 30s or low 40s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way that I view it is that if you\u2019re not on that list, we\u2019re not going to go out [and find you],\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to find us now. \u2026 [But] I wouldn\u2019t be shocked that if we get to December there\u2019s somebody that plays so well this month that we\u2019ll hone back in on for that last part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most interesting debates concern young players.<\/p>\n
Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard<\/a> has 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists) in 16 games, tied for second in the NHL in scoring. San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini<\/a> has 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists) in 16 games, fourth in the League.<\/p>\n Bedard, the No. 1 pick of the 2023 NHL Draft, is 20. Celebrini, the No. 1 pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, is 19.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just look at the way they\u2019re playing right now,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got our attention. But more importantly, they\u2019ve got other participants on Team Canada\u2019s attention, the coach\u2019s attention and hockey in general\u2019s attention, which is great not only for Team Canada. It\u2019s great for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer<\/a> is attracting attention too with 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his first 15 NHL games, tied for second among rookies.<\/p>\n Schaefer, the No. 1 pick of the 2025 NHL Draft, is 18. He played only 73 games for Erie of the Ontario Hockey League over the previous two seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at his history, like, I don\u2019t think he played [many] games over the last two years of junior hockey, and now what he\u2019s doing in the NHL, it\u2019s fantastic to watch,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cAnd he\u2019s a player that I didn\u2019t think you\u2019d be asking me that question about right now, so kudos for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Goaltending could be tricky.<\/p>\n Canada won the 4 Nations Face-Off last season with Jordan Binnington<\/a> of the St. Louis Blues as the starter. The backups were Adin Hill<\/a> of the Vegas Golden Knights and Sam Montembeault<\/a> of the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n Binnington is 3-5-2 with a 3.34 goals-against average and an .859 save percentage. Hill hasn\u2019t played since Oct. 20 due to a lower-body injury and is 1-0-2 with a 2.73 GAA and an .888 save percentage. Montembeault is 4-3-1 with a 3.46 GAA and an .864 save percentage.<\/p>\n Other candidates include Scott Wedgewood<\/a> of the Colorado Avalanche and Logan Thompson<\/a> of the Washington Capitals.<\/p>\n Wedgewood is 9-1-2 with a 2.37 GAA and .906 save percentage. Thompson is 6-4-0 with a 1.61 GAA and .930 save percentage.<\/p>\n Armstrong, the Blues GM, said he would lean on David Alexander, the Blues director of goaltending and Canada\u2019s goalie consultant.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a wide-open competition right now,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n Canada\u2019s management group met from about 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET with NHL general managers in Toronto for the Hockey Hall of Fame induction Monday and the NHL GM meeting Tuesday. (The United States management group was meeting on the same floor of the same downtown hotel.)<\/p>\n Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman — who led Canada\u2019s management group to gold at the last two Olympics to involve NHL players, in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014 — attended the meeting even though he doesn\u2019t have an official role with Canada at this Olympics.<\/p>\n Assistant coaches Pete DeBoer and Misha Donskov also attended the meeting. DeBoer has traveled to Italy to tour the arena, which is still under construction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next month will really give us an indication on where players are at,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO — Canada shortened its list of men\u2019s hockey prospects for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-276577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}