2010 Canadian Olympic Squad

Steve Yzerman, one of the most beloved figureheads in all of hockey. Continuously mentioned in the same breath as recent hockey greats; Gretzky, Lemieux and Messier. His resume as a player is almost unparalleled; 6^th place in all-time NHL scoring, 10 time NHL all-star, recipient of the Lester B. Pearson, Frank J. Selke, Conn Smythe & Bill Masterson awards, and to top it all off; 3 Stanley Cups. He won his 4^th Stanley Cup as Vice-President of the Detroit Red Wings this past year, his first year in that role. Now, he can add yet another accomplishment to his seemingly never-ending list of accolades as he was recently named the executive director of Canada’s Olympic Men’s Hockey Team. In a recent announcement, he will be joined by Detroit Red Wing GM Ken Holland, Ken Lowe who is President of the Edmonton Oilers and finally Doug Armstrong, who currently fills the Assistant GM job in St. Louis. The abovementioned executives will attempt to field a gold medal winning squad in February of 2010.

Speculation is running ramped about which players will represent Canada. From now until early 2010, there will be numerous amounts of newspapers, articles, blogs and other forms of hockey writing from writer’s to aficionado’s across the country, speculating what the final roster of what the beloved team will be. Whomever they decide, we do know this, there’s certainly no shortage of talent. Players such as; Sidney Crosby, Vincent Lecavalier, Jarome Iginla, Dany Heatley, Dion Phaneuf, Chris Pronger & Mike Green are all locks (barring injury) to make the squad. The management crew certainly does not want to be expeditious in determining the line-up, it would be wise to be very methodical in choosing the players as last Olympics did not fair so well. That being said, there is a myriad of other choices when determining the final roster. Canada has enough talent to send 3 full teams to the 2010 Olympics. However, we do not live in a perfect world and management will have to settle for cutting some very good players that deserve to represent their country on the international stage. In the wake of the managers being named, I thought I would offer my two cents on which players have an excellent chance on being selected:

Winger		Center		Winger
Sidney Crosby		Vincent Lecavalier		Jarome Iginla
Jason Spezza		Joe Thornton		Dany Heatley
Jonathan Toews		Ryan Getzlaf		Rick Nash
Brendan Morrow	Defense	Eric Staal	Defense	Mike Richards
	Dion Phaneuf		Chris Pronger
	Mike Green	Goaltender	Brian Campbell
	Brent Burns	Roberto Luongo	Jay Bouwmeester
		Martin Brodeur
		Marc-Andre Fleury

Forwards with a chance	Forwards with little chance
Ryan Smyth	Jeff Carter
Daniel Briere	Kyle Turris
Martin St. Louis	Simon Gagne
Corey Perry	Steven Stamkos
Paul Statsny	Brad Richards
Derek Roy	Nathan Horton
Shane Doan	John Tavares
Mike Fisher	Jordan Staal
	Patrick Marleau

Defensemen & Goalies with a chance	Defensemen & Goalies with little chance
Shea Weber	Dan Boyle
Robyn Regehr	Chris Phillips
Ed Jovanovski	Wade Redden
Marc Staal	Drew Doughty
Braydon Coburn	Luke Schenn
Duncan Keith	Marty Turco
Carey Price	Cam Ward

*Joe Sakic & Scott Niedermayer not listed because of career uncertainties

The biggest controversy will be on the situation of goaltenders. Canada is certainly too deep between the pipes. The main question will be; who is more deserving, Roberto Luongo or Martin Brodeur? While Brodeur has the experience, that in itself may be his downfall. There has been talk that he may be showing signs of aging, coupled with his lackluster performance at the last Olympics could prove to management that Luongo is the right man for the job.

With the NHL toying with the idea that this may be the last time they send players to compete for the Olympics, (although I doubt that will be the case) it certainly puts pressure on the players to make a push to represent their country. For all of these players, it will be the first time they will compete for Olympic glory at home in Canada, they will all want a shot to play. Of course injuries and performances of this year and the early part of next year will play a huge role in who ultimately gets to compete in Vancouver. But for now, isn’t it interesting to speculate?

Until next time,

Alex Fineberg