Um, who are these guys?
That could very well be the consensus thought in hockey circles Thursday morning, as Hockey Canada released its 25-man roster ahead of next month’s winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
The roster consists of three goalies, eight defencemen and 14 forwards, and is sprinkled with Vancouver ties throughout.
The lone Vancouverite is defenceman Stefan Elliott, a former Colorado Avalanche draft pick who’s played 84 NHL games with the Avalanche, Arizona Coyotes and Nashville Predators since his 2009 draft year. The 26-year-old last played in the Show in 2015-2016, when he suited up for two games for the Predators. He now plays in Sweden.
The roster is made up of journeymen like Elliott who ply their trade predominantly in European pro leagues, given the bureaucratic logjam that prevented NHL players from competing in what’s supposed to be a best-on-best tournament.
Instead, it’s an island of misfit toys, to quote the movie Moneyball.
Former Giant Gilbert Brulé is the lone major junior connection to Vancouver, while the list of ex-Canucks includes forwards Mason Raymond, Derek Roy, Maxim Lapierre, Andrew Ebbett and Linden Vey.
Yikes.
“It has been an exciting journey to arrive at this 25-player roster, and I want to congratulate these players on earning their place in history to represent Canada on the biggest sporting stage in the world – the Olympic Winter Games,” said Team Canada general manager and former NHL goalie Sean Burke in a news release.
The roster has a combined 5,544 NHL games played, with forward Chris Kelly’s 833 games being the most among the bunch. Kelly won a Stanley Cup in 2011 as part of the Boston Bruins team that dispatched of the Canucks in seven games.
The women’s team was named in late December, though the roster contains no B.C. ties, let alone Vancouverites.
Canada’s men’s team is the reigning gold medal holder twice over, having won the whole kit and caboodle in both 2014 and 2010. Only twice has Canada not won gold — in 1998 and 2006 — since the Olympics adopted the best-on-best format in 1998.
Canada’s hockey teams have won 13 medals, nine of them gold, since the first Olympic hockey tournament was held in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920.
The Team Canada men’s team opens its Olympic schedule on Thursday, Feb. 15 at the Kwandong Hockey Centre in Gangneung, when it meets Switzerland in Group A. The gold medal game takes place on Feb. 25.
The full roster shakes down like this:
Goaltenders: Justin Peters, Kevin Poulin and Ben Scrivens.
Defencemen: Stefan Elliott, Chay Genoway, Cody Goloubef, Marc-André Gragnani, Chris Lee, Maxim Noreau, Mat Robinson and Karl Stollery.
Forwards: René Bourque, Gilbert Brulé, Andrew Ebbett, Quinton Howden, Chris Kelly, Rob Klinkhammer, Brandon Kozun, Maxim Lapierre, Eric O’Dell, Mason Raymond, Derek Roy, Christian Thomas, Linden Vey and Wojtek Wolski.
