The Canada Olympic men’s hockey roster seeking the nation’s third straight gold medal of course looks very different than in 2010 and 2014.
In fact, the 25-man team named Thursday includes zero players with Olympic experience.
Canada is ranked No. 1 in the world but is one of the teams hardest hit by the NHL’s decision not to participate in the Olympics for the first time since 1994.
That was very apparent in a pre-Olympic tournament last month, when lowly South Korea led 2-1 after the first period against a Canadian team that included many skaters named to the Olympic team.
Canada will try to become the first nation to win three straight Olympic men’s hockey titles since the Soviet Union/Unified Team in 1984, 1988 and 1992.
Former Vancouver Canucks coach Willie Desjardins is the head coach.
The Olympic favorite is Russia, since it is expected to lean heavily on KHL stars such as four-time Olympians Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk.
Canada Olympic Men’s Hockey Roster
Goalies (NHL Games)
Justin Peters (83) -- German League
Kevin Poulin (50) -- Austrian League
Ben Scrivens (144) -- Russian League
Defensemen (NHL Games)
Stefan Elliott (84) -- Swedish League
Chay Genoway (1) -- Russian League
Cody Goloubef (129) -- AHL
Marc-Andre Gragnani (78) -- Russian League
Chris Lee (0) -- Russian League
Maxim Noreau (6) -- Swiss League
Mat Robinson (0) -- Russian League
Karl Stollery (23) -- Russian League
Forwards (NHL Games)
Rene Bourque (725) -- Swedish League
Gilbert Brule (299) -- Russian League
Andrew Ebbett (224) -- Swiss League
Quentin Howden (97) -- Russian League
Chris Kelly (833) -- Unsigned
Rob Klinkhammer (193) -- Russian League
Brandon Kozun (20) -- Russian League
Maxim Lapierre (614) -- Swiss League
Eric O’Dell (41) -- Russian League
Mason Raymond (546) -- Swiss League
Derek Roy (738) -- Swedish League
Christian Thomas (27) -- AHL
Linden Vey (138) -- Russian League
Wojtek Wolski (451) -- Russian League
The players have a combined 5,544 games of NHL experience, or an average of 222 games per player.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
