IIHF accidentally tweets Team Canada Men’s Olympic hockey roster
Whoops. Team Canada’s men’s Olympic hockey roster was released a day ahead of time.
A mistimed tweet, which was sent from the International Ice Hockey Federation’s official @IIHFHockey account, accidentally blasted out the graphic of Team Canada’s entry for the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
The tweet was quickly deleted. Hockey Canada was scheduled to formally announce the roster at 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday morning.
Here is the roster, as per the IIHF’s graphic, which was quickly saved by others in social media posts:
A total of 25 players were officially named to the roster, but each federation – including participants in the women’s tournament – will be permitted to bring six extras for COVID-19 considerations.
NHL veterans Eric Staal, David Desharnais, Mark Barberio and Jason Demers will clearly be counted on as leaders on the roster. The latter two have spent this season playing with Ak Bars Kazan in the KHL.
Desharnais, meanwhile, has spent the last three seasons with HC Fribourg-Gotteron in the Swiss National “A” League, where he has collected 112 points in 134 games.
And lastly, Staal, who has not played in the NHL this season, is likely to don the “C” as Captain Canada. He joined the AHL’s Iowa Wild three weeks ago to begin Olympic preparation. He netted two goals and five points in three AHL games.
While there are other intriguing storylines with other NHL veterans who have since competed across Europe – including Landon Ferraro, Jordan Weal and Adam Cracknell – most of the attention in Canada will be focused on the young guns.
No. 1 overall pick Owen Power could be asked to play a significant role on the team, in addition to the player picked two spots below him in Mason McTavish, the No. 3 pick from July’s NHL Draft. Both players were part of Team Canada’s World Junior team prior to the cancellation of that tournament.
McTavish, 18, played some games in both the NHL and AHL this year, but was assigned to the OHL after a nine-game stint with the Anaheim Ducks. He’s split time between the Peterborough Petes and the Hamilton Bulldogs after a midseason trade. In seven OHL games this year, he’s scored nine goals and 12 points.
Power, 19, returned to the University of Michigan this year where he’s been dominant scoring 26 points in 24 games. He joined Team Canada at the men’s World Championships last year where he scored three points in 10 games.
Power’s teammate at Michigan, Kent Johnson, will reportedly be one of the alternates for Team Canada.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.