With the NHL declining to send players to the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, we all knew the countries involved would have to get creative with their roster selections. The United States unveiled their roster earlier this month and it was a motley crew of aging vets, middle-of-the-road players, and possible future stars.
Canada revealed their own roster on Thursday, and they've taken a bit of a different approach. Team Canada has gone with a lot of veteran names that hockey fans may recognize. There are a number of former NHL regulars, of which several are currently competing in the KHL. Overall, 13 of Team Canada's 25 players will be pulled from the KHL.
Here is the roster in full:
Forwards
- Rene Bourque
- Gilbert Brule
- Andrew Ebbett
- Quinton Howden
- Chris Kelly
- Rob Klinkhammer
- Brandon Kozun
- Maxim Lapierre
- Eric O'Dell
- Mason Raymond
- Derek Roy
- Christian Thomas
- Linden Vey
- Wojtek Wolski
Defensemen
- Stefan Elliott
- Chay Genoway
- Cody Goloubef
- Marc-Andre Gragnani
- Chris Lee
- Maxim Noreau
- Mat Robinson
- Karl Stollery
Goaltenders
- Ben Scrivens
- Kevin Poulin
- Justin Peters
It's clear that those constructing Canada's roster value experience over youth, as the average age of the 2018 team is 31 years old. While Team USA has four current college players that will be heading to South Korea to compete, the youngest player on Canada's roster is 25-year-old Christian Thomas.
This means that they won't be bringing anyone from their 2018 World Junior Championship roster, which won gold at the tournament earlier this month. It is worth noting, however, that Hockey Canada reportedly extended a roster spot to at least one of the players on that roster -- University of Massachusetts defenseman and Colorado Avalanche prospect Cale Makar -- who turned down the offer.
