How did you want to make this roster? Because you do have a nice mix. You get an older guy, like an Eric Staal, but you’re working in the Owen Powers and you’re working in Mason McTavish. Did you have an idea going in as a group that (you) were going to bring X number of young kids, X number of guys in the middle and maybe a couple of veteran guys?
I think you have an idea in your head of what you want, but it kind of ebbs and flows throughout the whole process. Obviously, we’re ecstatic about the way it turned out, with having the opportunity to have a guy like Eric Staal come. Owen Power is a special talent, and Mason McTavish is a guy that we’re all gonna watch for a long, long time. But to have some of those veteran guys — we have Max Noreau, who played in the last Olympics in 2018. We have a couple other guys that played in the 2018 Olympics, as well. We were just trying to make sure that we had a good mix of everybody.
But the whole point was to win. It wasn’t like we had this plan of what we want to do and (what) we’re gonna build — our goal is to pick the best players that we could find and hope that they are the guys that are gonna bring us home gold.
What do you think we’re gonna see from Owen Power in this tournament?
I’m a huge Owen Power fan. I’ve known him for three or four years now. He’s an incredible talent. I don’t think people really understand how good he is. What he did for us at the world championships, this last one in Latvia, he was incredible. Nothing has really been handed to him. He’s had to go out and work for it. He wasn’t one of the guys that was chosen early on — that this guy’s predestined as a great player. He has kind of come on to the scene in the last year and a half, two years … for some. I’ve been a huge fan for the last four years. I’m just saying. But I think he’s gonna be great for us. He’s got some guys around him, some veteran guys on the blue line. Our blue line’s a veteran group for the most part, and that was important. And he’s gonna have the opportunity to be around those guys, and it’ll be good.