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Four Nations Tournament-Team Canada

Interesting names. I'm not massively interested in this event at the moment, but it may surprise me. I mainly view it as a warm up or trial before the 2026 Olympics. Still very interesting to get these insights and it is fun to speculate. I think we'll see one of the weakest team Canada rosters ever for an event where everyone is presumably available.

No surprise that after a "third party review" Makar is cleared to play again. I expect that if he has a good start to next year then Robert Thomas will pass the same review. The review is referenced here: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5600401/2024/06/28/canada-hockey-4-nations-roster/

Marchand is kind of a strange name but people were underestimating his chances in a thread a few months back and Canada isn't nearly as deep now. He's still a good fourth liner for this level. The concern would be that Canada goes with the Nova Scotia line that MacKinnon has publicly lobbied for, but they can get it out of their system at this event. I would have loved to give it a shot in 2018 or 2022 though. Point is a decent enough pick.

I think it's quite possible that Canada will run McDavid, MacKinnon, Crosby, and Point as its centres when the games matter. Lots of open spots though. Defence in particular is wide open. Need to consider it a bit. I'm very curious as to how Hockey Canada views Bouchard - big playoffs, but if Canada doesn't need him for the power play (Makar) then I'm not sure he's all that useful here.
 
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Leaf Lander said:
Will be interesting to see who are 6 defenceman will be

Aaron Ekblad Alex Pietrangelo
Josh Morrissey Morgan Rielly
Drew Doughty Cale Makar
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Devon Toews is pretty much a lock with Makar on the first pairing and will play the PK together. Don’t know if you need Morgan Reilly, would rather have Noah Dobson. Adam Pelech or Weegar as a 8th option isn’t bad for shutdown purposes. Theodore probably makes it over Ekblad too.
 
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tmlms13 said:
I don't know know if I'd even have Marchand on the final team. But in the first 6? Seriously?
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It's interesting, because with the exception of Marchand these guys were the top scoring Canadians in the NHL this year (Reinhart was #3). I'm going to be very interested to see what the final roster looks like as there may be unexpected names make it.
 
I could see this being a fairly experimental roster, at least more that Canada typically would do. A few fallow drafts have left things more open. For example, likely in the 2022 Olympic tournament you would have seen some combination of Couturier/O'Reilly/Stone/Bergeron taking on defensive responsibilities, but health/age/retirement rule those guys out, maybe an outside chance to O'Reilly. Could see Reinhart getting that kind of role as he's at least solid defensively. One guy that I think has a really good chance of getting a complementary winger role is Konecny (Marchand Crosby Konecny?) if he's healthy.

I also think that there are spots available for guys like Lafreniere, Byfield, McTavish, Johnston if they start the next season well. In particular Canada is going to want some size and the first three can help there. You'd like more international/playoff experience perhaps but can't have it all. I also thin it's safe to assume that Bedard makes the team. He'll be a winger, but I don't know where he'll fit. If Point is a centre that could be a decent fit since McDavid and MacKinnon aren't realistically going to cover for him. There are a lot of different ways the forwards could go. Thomas is good but might not make it at centre, Barzal has shown positional versatility but Canada probably has better playmakers so I'm not sure he can contribute all that much. Cozens is also a strong contender to me given his versatile game, but Canada is pretty strong on the right side so who knows.

Outside of Makar I suspect that the defence is pretty open. Morrissey will likely be there. Theodore if he's healthy, probably at least one vet like Doughty or Pietrangelo. It's not a great group beyond Makar.

Binnington will probably be one of the goaltenders but needless to say there will likely be open competition and guys who play well could take a spot.
 
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jigglysquishy said:
I think Dobson is making it.

I'm curious how lines work out. Having MacKinnon, McDavid, and Crosby all play centre is some incredible depth but I think one moves to wing.
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tmlms13 said:
I don't know know if I'd even have Marchand on the final team. But in the first 6? Seriously?
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I still think they're basically going to try to run back the Marchand-Crosby-Bergeron line, but with Point on the RW, and this time as L3 instead of L1. Somebody's gotta kill penalties.
 
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Nucks2001 said:
Hyman-McDavid-Bedard
Marchand-Crosby-MacKinnon
Lafrenière-Point-Marner
Verhaege-Thomas-Reinhart
13th: Barzal

Toews-Makar
Morrisey-Dobson
Theodore-Doughty
Pietrangelo

Hill
Thompson
Skinner
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I think that's reasonably close. It's a struggle for me to think of LW options. I wonder about the possibility of Bedard as a depth LW, getting his shot off from his off wing. If Byfield has a strong start to the year he could easily get a LW spot, maybe even O'Reilly. The defence looks very reasonable except I could see them opting for at least one defenceman with a lot of size. Goaltending is depressing.
 
I think Bedard will make the team, even as a 13th forward. He struggled in the end of the World Championships but did show promise early on.

The summer training will do him well and I hope he looks like a star by Christmas.
 
jigglysquishy said:
I think Bedard will make the team, even as a 13th forward. He struggled in the end of the World Championships but did show promise early on.

The summer training will do him well and I hope he looks like a star by Christmas.
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You take Bedard as an investment for the future. If he's a star then that's a bonus. He was in the ballpark of a point per game last year playing with.... not much. He's very likely offensively good enough to make this team, so bring him for a sheltered role if necessary and let him play at this level before the 2026 Olympics.
 
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tmlms13 said:
I don't know know if I'd even have Marchand on the final team. But in the first 6? Seriously?
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The guy has been around and succeeding so long, he’s part of the on ice leadership group. He’s won it all, and he’s a badger out there. Put him on any line on that team, he’s fine.
 
The Marchand nomination is such classic Team Canada behaviour.

I always knew there was a high chance he'd be there for his leadership, experience, versatility, and chemistry with Sid but if you want him on the team, just name him like everyone else when the time comes.

What possible incentive can there be to name a 36 year old who showed signs of decline second half of last season and round 2 of the playoffs this year as one of the first 6 so far in advance?

Why lock yourself into the only player in contention who has a realistic chance of falling off of a cliff when you could have just as easily given yourselves next season to monitor his play?
 
HFpapi said:
The Marchand nomination is such classic Team Canada behaviour.

I always knew there was a high chance he'd be there for his leadership, experience, versatility, and chemistry with Sid but if you want him on the team, just name him like everyone else when the time comes.

What possible incentive can there be to name a 36 year old who showed signs of decline second half of last season and round 2 of the playoffs this year as one of the first 6 so far in advance?

Why lock yourself into the only player in contention who has a realistic chance of falling off of a cliff when you could have just as easily given yourselves next season to monitor his play?
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Are you serious dude? Even at age 36 Marchand is a first line star and I say this as a die hard feafs fan. He's a player you'd love to have on your team
 
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