For as strong as Canada’s hockey player pool has always been, there remains an established history of the country sending unheralded, untested or just plain young guys to big-time international events.
Poor Rob Zamuner’s name still comes up in this conversation because, at the first Olympics that featured pros in 1998, the Canadian brass of Bob Clarke, Bob Gainey and Pierre Gauthier put the Tampa Bay Lightning winger on a team of stars for his defensive prowess. Maybe if that club had won gold instead of failing to medal, the decision would be a fun footnote instead of a go-to cautionary tale.
Whereas Zamuner was nearly 30 in 1998, many surprise inclusions raise eyebrows because of how young they are.
Eric Lindros had yet to play an NHL game when, at 18 years old, he suited up for Canada at the 1991 Canada Cup. (To help put that in perspective, an 18-year-old Sidney Crosby was not named to Canada’s 2006 Olympic team halfway through his 102-point rookie year in the NHL). Simon Gagne was a relatively unknown third-year NHLer still shy of his 22nd birthday when Wayne Gretzky and Co. put him on the 2002 Olympic squad that won gold in Salt Lake City. And eight years later, Drew Doughty was about two months removed from being a teenager when he suited up for the victorious Canada team at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.
On Thursday, we made our Canadian roster for the 4 Nations Face-off — which kicks off six months from now on Feb. 12, 2025 — and went ahead and put 19-year-old Connor Bedard and 20-year-old Wyatt Johnston on the team. Bedard, for sure, has a great shot at making the squad, and Johnston has already established himself as a big-game player with the Dallas Stars.
While those two guys lead the way, they’re by no means the only young or under-the-radar guys who could push their way into the conversation for inclusion on Canada’s squad. With that in mind, here’s a half-dozen names to consider for the Canadian entry, both in February and beyond with the 2026 Olympics and 2028 World Cup of Hockey on the horizon.
Quinton Byfield, Forward
Byfield, who turns 22 in a few days, broke out last year playing on the Los Angeles Kings’ top line. Canada has a lot of things, but it doesn’t have much in the way of six-foot-five guys who can bull their way to the net and bury. (Really, who does?) The second-overall pick from 2020 hit the 20-goal mark last year and surely has another level or two to go.
Thomas Harley and Owen Power, Defence
It just makes sense to group these two left-shot blue-liners together because that side of Canada’s defence seem far less locked in than the right. The starboard side features the likes of Cale Makar, Evan Bouchard, Alex Pietrangelo, Drew Doughty, Aaron Ekblad and Noah Dobson. The port side, though, is populated by players like Josh Morrissey, Morgan Rielly and Devon Toews. All quality defencemen, to be sure, but not unimpeachable in terms of their place on the team.
Harley, who just happens to share a birthday with Quinton Byfield and will turn 23 on Monday, is a fantastic puck-mover who took a big step forward with the Dallas Stars this past season. Despite being a relatively young player, he’s already got 39 games’ worth of playoff experience on his resume.
Power, meanwhile, was the first-overall pick in 2021 and now has two years of NHL reps under his belt with the Buffalo Sabres. If the six-foot-six 21-year-old makes a leap in Year 3, you wonder if we could see his imposing frame on a third pair.
Joel Hofer, Goalie
If there’s a small window of opportunity for left-shot defencemen to push their way onto the team, there’s a Prairie-sized hole to shoot for in the crease. We all know Canada’s goalie situation is completely up in the air and the opportunity exists for a relatively unknown guy to step forward and make the team with a strong first half to the NHL season.
One St. Louis Blues goalie — Jordan Binnington — is already part of the conversation, so why not enter a second in the form of 24-year-old Joel Hofer? After all, team Canada GM Doug Armstrong sees both guys every day in his role as GM of the Blues.
The six-foot-five Hofer established himself as an NHLer last year with a .913 save percentage in 30 games. In 19 games from Christmastime on, Hofer had a .922 mark in 19 contests. He also has some previous, positive experience with the national team, having led Team Canada to gold at the 2020 World Junior Championship and posting a .946 save percentage in six games along the way.
Alexis Lafreniere, Forward
This past season marked the long-awaited breakout for Lafreniere, who turns 23 in October. The 2020 first-overall pick netted 28 goals for the New York Rangers as he started to realize his full NHL potential. He’s a winger who can score and make plays and with another jump in production, he could become a player Canada takes a long, hard look at.
Mason McTavish, Forward
McTavish’s first two years in the NHL haven’t been a smashing success production-wise, but he’s also been toiling on an Anaheim Ducks team that’s lingered near the bottom of the league. The Ducks could be poised to move up the standings this year and it would be no surprise to see McTavish’s stats spike as part of that ascent. The 21-year-old is a sturdy 213 pounds and can thrive in the tough areas of the ice. He missed nearly 20 games due to injury this past season and actually played at a 54-point pace when healthy.
McTavish had an all-time world juniors in the summer of 2022, leading Canada to gold as its captain and netting 17 points in seven outings. That same year, he skated for Canada at the 2022 Olympics as a 19-year-old.
from Sportsnet.ca
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