WJC: 2024 Team Canada Roster Talk - Part 1

[TheBeastCoast]

It's a bit ridiculous that Canada didn't fly out its injury replacements to Sweden and had to fly in a kid last minute before a game. All for the sake of not having them miss a few games with their CHL team. That's amateur hour stuff. These leagues have like 16 teams make the postseason out of 18 (QMJHL), 20 (OHL) or 22 (WHL) total teams, so only really horrible teams that don't even want to win (trade their 19 year olds, etc.) miss the postseason. A kid missing a few games in the regular season doesn't matter.

Yeah I get the policy for NA tournaments but when it’s in Europe you have to adjust.

 

[wishywashy19]

Plus Luneau would have been a guaranteed pick if we're counting injured players too.

Missing six stars (including a generational prospect) is a bit much for any team.

The loss of both Luneau and Molendyk was more noteworthy than not having the Five NHL ers
they would have logged 22/24 minutes a game
cannot be replaced with Donovan / Nelson

 

[yessir29292]

The loss of both Luneau and Molendyk was more noteworthy than not having the Five NHL ers
they would have logged 22/24 minutes a game
cannot be replaced with Donovan / Nelson

Canadas u20 team made up of guys not there walk to a gold medal

 

[novisor]

Another edition of the greatest hockey/tournament of the year and holiday season has come to pass. Can't wait for December 2025, soon enough we'll be hearing "It's the most wonderful time of the year" on TSN again. A holiday tradition like no other.

 

[MM917]

The loss of both Luneau and Molendyk was more noteworthy than not having the Five NHL ers
they would have logged 22/24 minutes a game
cannot be replaced with Donovan / Nelson

Yes we are used to losing a lot of talent to the NHL that is part of a Canadian WJHC team, but losing two guys who would have been able to play a ton of minutes, with at least one of them on the top pairing if not both, to injury was brutal.

If you just paired them and then kept the Lameroux-Mateychuk pairing that gives you two pairings you can put on the ice against anyone in the tournament. Instead we had one quality pairing and 4 liabilities out there.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

What are the groups for next year?

 

[NyQuil]

It's a bit ridiculous that Canada didn't fly out its injury replacements to Sweden and had to fly in a kid last minute before a game. All for the sake of not having them miss a few games with their CHL team. That's amateur hour stuff. These leagues have like 16 teams make the postseason out of 18 (QMJHL), 20 (OHL) or 22 (WHL) total teams, so only really horrible teams that don't even want to win (trade their 19 year olds, etc.) miss the postseason. A kid missing a few games in the regular season doesn't matter.

Not what you would expect from the organization that cares about this event the most.

I don’t know if it was complacency or incompetence.

 

[Slats432]

What are the groups for next year?

 

[NyQuil]

NYE game is possible!

 

[TheBeastCoast]

View attachment 796762

Ohh nice in the fun group next year with a CAN-USA NYE match.

 

[WarriorofTime]

View attachment 796762

USA and Sweden basically just switched groups, lol. So they would have been more or less the same had Sweden won today. Germany and "promoted team" switched as well I guess.

 

[Slats432]

States will probably be a wagon again next year. I hope Celebrini goes to a team that can do without him for a couple weeks. Canada should always be a medal threat regardless of who is on the team, but having the top end guys sure helps. Not having the Bedards or Fantilis of the world makes the hill a bit steeper.

 

[Mick Riddleton]

I’m not sure Boston being good and him scoring at close to a .5PPG pace means he would have made their team.

He’s playing with good line-mates. 13 points in 27 games is decent, but it’s completely within the fluky range.

He was 6th in OHL scoring last year. Didn’t hit 100 points. He’s a good prospect that wasn’t NHL ready. He should’ve been sent back. Boston had two top six centers retire, which opened the way for him. Without that, he’s back in the OHL. I think he will also find himself scratched or sent back to the OHL as the NHL season goes on. I don’t think he’s ready, even if his first 27 games aren’t shabby.

He got 2 points tonight versus Tampa, he has players that can now convert his passes versus the Junior guys that could not hit the broad side of a barn. Bergeron said the Junior tournament was faster than the NHL when he played in it. Poitras is better suited to guys who get open and have a higher hockey IQ, rather than blinding speed and no hands.

 

[Cowumbus]

Yah, I liked Celebrini, Lamoureux and Mateychuk.

Thought Geekie and Danielson were good as well, just felt like they were ready to take over a game and it just never quite happened? Thought Beck was good as well.

the 18 year old's struggled to put their stamp on the tournament which isn't surprising as that's what usually happens. Yager, Cowan, Wood and Bonk will be a good starting point for next year as returning players.

Really thought Savoie (probably pretty hurt though), Dumais and Poitras would have had bigger impacts.

Dumais playing hurt as well

 

[wishywashy19]

Dumais playing hurt as well

If all these guys were playing hurt they should have been line demoted. I blame Dumais / Savpie the most for a dead offence.

 

[Cowumbus]

If all these guys were playing hurt they should have been line demoted. I blame Dumais / Savpie the most for a dead offence.

I wonder how bad it was for Dumais, because IIRC they held him out of camp at some points because of his hips.

Not a bad excuse though, for a guy people consider to be the whipping boy.

 

[McJedi]

Calem Ritchie should be on this team next year.

 

[yessir29292]

Calem Ritchie should be on this team next year.

probably should’ve been on it this year

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

Every so often comes a year where the Canadian WJC management group learns how not to handle the goalie situation from making the selections to deploying the goalies. This is going to be one of those years where there's going to be a lot of internal discussions on what went wrong and how to avoid those problems in the future. One of those being don't go all-in on a goalie that hasn't shown they deserve that all-in factor. Even Hugo Havelid shared the net with Melker Thelin but Canada couldn't find ice time for anyone but Rousseau? Letang and co. put themselves in a corner in the QF game as they couldn't go with another goalie despite Rousseau looking shaky because St-Hiliare only had like 30 minutes of game time since coming to Europe. In hindsight St-Hilaire doesn't yeet himself out of the way on the 3rd goal like Rousseau does but Canada should have scored a 3rd and even 4th goal on Hrabal by that point.

We all knew coming into this tournament the goalie was going to have carry more weight than in previous tournaments. Feels like they took the wrong message from last tournament when Thomas Milic was rather great and decided to go with a CHL goalie who was having a great season. Rousseau would have been fine behind last years team or the year before that probably. Feels like they played it super safe, got goalies that were putting up good numbers and thought it'd translate ignoring that a goalie having good year in the CHL doesn't mean he'll do well in the WJC. Canada had been doing well with their run of goalies like Hofer, Levi, Garand, Milic. This year they faltered.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Every so often comes a year where the Canadian WJC management group learns how not to handle the goalie situation from making the selections to deploying the goalies. This is going to be one of those years where there's going to be a lot of internal discussions on what went wrong and how to avoid those problems in the future. One of those being don't go all-in on a goalie that hasn't shown they deserve that all-in factor. Even Hugo Havelid shared the net with Melker Thelin but Canada couldn't find ice time for anyone but Rousseau? Letang and co. put themselves in a corner in the QF game as they couldn't go with another goalie despite Rousseau looking shaky because St-Hiliare only had like 30 minutes of game time since coming to Europe. In hindsight St-Hilaire doesn't yeet himself out of the way on the 3rd goal like Rousseau does but Canada should have scored a 3rd and even 4th goal on Hrabal by that point.

We all knew coming into this tournament the goalie was going to have carry more weight than in previous tournaments. Feels like they took the wrong message from last tournament when Thomas Milic was rather great and decided to go with a CHL goalie who was having a great season. Rousseau would have been fine behind last years team or the year before that probably. Feels like they played it super safe, got goalies that were putting up good numbers and thought it'd translate ignoring that a goalie having good year in the CHL doesn't mean he'll do well in the WJC. Canada had been doing well with their run of goalies like Hofer, Levi, Garand, Milic. This year they faltered.

Completely agree and I was saying it in the moment. Regardless of the outcomes, I thought Canada handled the goaltending terribly. They backed themselves into a corner by making Rousseau the only option with their lack of chances given to the other goalies.

I still can't believe they had a plan to split a game with St-Hilaire and Ratzlaff but Rousseau wanted to play and they conceded. An insane amount of power to give the goalie. And again, this wasn't like a Marc-Andre Fleury superstar type prospect where you know he's the guy, I'm puzzled why Rousseau was ever given this much say in the matter.

Not even blaming him for the loss it was just a really bizarre process that I hope to not see repeated.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

Completely agree and I was saying it in the moment. Regardless of the outcomes, I thought Canada handled the goaltending terribly. They backed themselves into a corner by making Rousseau the only option with their lack of chances given to the other goalies.

I still can't believe they had a plan to split a game with St-Hilaire and Ratzlaff but Rousseau wanted to play and they conceded. An insane amount of power to give the goalie. And again, this wasn't like a Marc-Andre Fleury superstar type prospect where you know he's the guy, I'm puzzled why Rousseau was ever given this much say in the matter.

Not even blaming him for the loss it was just a really bizarre process that I hope to not see repeated.

Hopefully a lesson learned. It felt like they were doubling down on the Thomas Milic strategy from last year and decided Rousseau was another Milic. Statistically they weren't wrong but not all stats translate perfectly into the WJC. Play style translates, not stats. Felt like they put themselves in a corner too with the goalies they picked. It's like they regretted taking St-Hilaire and Ratzlaff so they'd just rather hope Rousseau would find another level in play he really didn't have. Just a weird tournament in how they approached goaltending. Would love to be part of the debriefing and what not post-tournament to figure out how they got to where they go to.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Meant to post this comment immediately after the tournament but was on a hiatus from HF.

Would Everett's Ben Hemmerling been a difference maker in terms of generating scoring chances?