Salmond has needed to go for a long time, but the Anholt choice continues to be perplexing and unacceptable. The guy has won nothing in junior hockey (spare me the Hlinka where Canada nearly wins by default) and presided over a shambolic team last year - he should be gone. These teams should be built by people who have demonstrated that they can win in junior hockey.
Scott Wheeler actually is willing to correctly criticize this team where TSN won't (
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6006859/2024/12/27/canada-latvia-world-juniors-2025/) and you can see that the Hockey Canada braintrust just doesn't get it. Anholt proudly emphasizing that he really
knows the players this year, Walker flying out to meet Molendyk and Yager and emphasize that they need to set a
higher standard. Here is what they need to do - pick better teams you dopes. 2024 was not an overly talented group, but 2025 is. Pick your elite talent and then throw in a couple of high end role players, don't pick half a team of role players. Pick coaches who have had a lot of success in their junior leagues, not dumbasses like Letang. Don't pick Cameron to coach a group of players that projects to make a team that is nothing like what Cameron likes. Hold an actual camp because guess what.... you aren't smart enough to know what the team should be before all the players come together.
Anyway going forward for this team, which is not yet a lost cause, some changes need to be made. I'd say that the defence should stay mostly the same, though Dickinson needs to move up with Schaefer likely out. The structure has been fine at even strength. The forwards need changes. Ritchie has probably been the best forward on the team and Cowan has played pretty well, but Nadeau has added little to nothing on the top line. He should be dropped to Yager's line to give Yager someone to play with, especially a playmaker since Yager is probably the most assertive forward, along with Cowan, when it comes to being willing to take a shot from a threatening area. Rhkopf should not have been scratched to start with, so it's time to scratch Cataford and utilize Rehkopf's much needed skillset. I have no issue with how Pinelli has played but McKenna and Catton need someone with some size who can also open up some space for them. Something along the lines of:
Rehkopf Ritchie Cowan
McKenna Catton Martone
Nadeau Yager Pinelli
LW Luchanko RW
Should be tried. The power play drastically needs to be overhauled as we all know. Bonk needs to be gone. Molendyk for unit 1 and Dickinson, who has yet t show much yet I must admit, on unit 2. Rehkopf rather than Nadeau, and Howe gone. Unit two hasn't scored but it at least makes sense on paper.
I don't think the team is a write off yet but changes are in order and the result should not distract from the clear flaws in the Hockey Canada process. Most people in this thread are correct, though I am sure that there is mindless cheerleading and hand wringing about people rightly complaining from a poster of two who were rightly ignored years ago. It is unfortunate when fans are more reliable than the people put in charge to make these teams, but that is the case for Canada at the junior level most times.
