Inside Team Canada’s “critical” Olympic meeting to reshape the roster

Team Canada’s Olympic brain trust is heading into what insider Pierre LeBrun called a “critical” weekend, one that should define the majority of the roster heading to Milan. General manager Doug Armstrong confirmed that by the time meetings wrap up on Tuesday, the staff hopes to take about 70% of the roster from “pencil to pen.”

Six names are already locked in from the announcement in June: Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Connor McDavid, Brayden Point, and Sam Reinhart. The rest of the depth chart, especially up front, is where the real tension sits.

Despite reports this week that Milan’s ice surface could be three or four feet smaller than a standard NHL rink, Armstrong says that won’t influence their choices. The decisions will come down to performance, not rink dimensions.

And those decisions won’t be easy. LeBrun says there’s still a sizable group of forwards under heavy consideration even though they weren’t part of the Four Nations roster. But in reality, only two or three spots are likely available from that pool.

“Part of our conversation that we had on Wednesday was that upfront at forward, there’s still so many hard decisions, so many players making it hard on them.

“My sense is this, I think there’s a group of players that weren’t at the 4 Nations that remain heavily in the conversation, but there’s only two or three spots, I think, available from that 4 Nations roster.”

That group includes Macklin Celebrini, Bo Horvat, Tom Wilson, Nick Suzuki, Wyatt Johnston, Mark Scheifele, and Connor Bedard. According to LeBrun, only three players from that list are expected to make the final Olympic team, and the debates over which three will headline the conversations this weekend.

With Canada set to open the Olympic tournament against the Czech Republic on Feb. 12, the pressure is on. By Tuesday, we’ll have the clearest picture yet of who’s truly in, who’s out, and how close Canada is to finalizing its first NHL-powered Olympic roster since 2014.