Olympic talks are ongoing … No Team USA GM yet … 10 or 11 Team Canada locks
TSN: The NHL, NHLPA and IIHF have held preliminary talks about the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing according to Darren Dreger. There are still so many unknowns with COVID still going to be around in a year.
“There are so many scenarios that are in play here, not being discussed at the NHL or the NHLPA level, but kind of “pie in the sky, way out there”, type of ideas. What about a satellite venue in North America? So not in China. Like a bubble for hockey. It’s worth a discussion. Worth asking the question. I don’t know how far it’s going to go but the IIHF will have a call next week and maybe discussions move forward.”
Frank Seravalli adds that Team USA doesn’t plan on naming a GM until it’s formally announced that there is an agreement in place to go to the Olympics. Have been told though that Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman is the frontrunner with David Poile and Don Waddell as part of the advisory group.
TSN: Team Canada GM Doug Armstrong told Pierre LeBrun and Scott Burnside on their podcast that there are 10 or 11 locks for the team.
“I think where we are at right now, we have a majority where we probably have 10 or 11 locks on the team,” Armstrong told The Athletic’s Two-Man Advantage podcast with Pierre LeBrun and Scott Burnside. “That leaves up to 14 or 15 players that are in contention and there’s probably 50 guys on that list still. It’s just a whittling down process.
“You want to add guys to the locks and remove guys that are no longer in consideration and hope that list gets smaller and smaller.”
Back when Armstrong was named GM of Team Canada he mentioned that they will bring some young players. He’s told his management group to key an eye on players like Blues forward Jordan Kyrou and Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram.
Craig Button’s projected Team Canada
