I think management likely saw enough PMD in Makar, Toews, Theodore and Morrissey that they wanted another shutdown D so they chose Sanheim.
I would have selected Thomas and Schefiele over Cirelli and Hagel. Cirelli and Hagel have overachieved this year and I'm still waiting for both of them to come back down to earth.
Thompson is unproven and I think his numbers this year are inflated due to Carberys system.
Cirelli and Hagel make sense to me. They fit Cooper’s scheme and have chemistry together.
Hagel was 8th in ESP last season, which is just ridiculous when you think about it and he’s 8th this season (not playing with Kucherov, Guentzel or Point 5v5) with 49/56pts being either ES or SH. Canada’s pretty weak on pure Left-Wingers right now and I don’t think anyone can argue that Hagel is not the best pure LW right now for Canada
Cirelli is Canada’s premier shutdown center right now, so completely understand the selection. With Lowry out, you had Danault and they probably opted for the younger selection. He’s on track to be being a Selke finalist this season. Has that playoff pedigree and can play both special teams. Not a bad pick IMO.
The more ridiculous picks are Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand. Players that are too old, one-dimensional and are being based off one playoff run. If you have Cirelli, Hagel, Jarvis, Reinhart, and Stone on your team already, you don’t really need those 2. That’s where you look to Scheifele, Bedard, or Thomas to round out your team with skill.
Logan Thompson should have made the team. The goalie selections were a joke.