World Cup of Hockey: Canada's final roster is announced, sans Subban
The final roster is in, and these are the 23 players who will represent Canada in Toronto.
Canada is a favourite in virtually every international hockey competition, and September's reboot of the World Cup will be no exception. Today, Hockey Canada released the final names to be included on this year's roster. The newly added names can be seen in bold below.
Player | Position | League | Current Team |
Carey Price | G | NHL | Montreal Canadiens |
Braden Holtby | G | NHL | Washington Capitals |
Corey Crawford | G | NHL | Chicago Blackhawks |
Marc-Edouard Vlasic | D | NHL | San Jose Sharks |
Duncan Keith | D | NHL | Chicago Blackhawks |
Shea Weber | D | NHL | Nashville Predators |
Drew Doughty | D | NHL | Los Angeles Kings |
Alex Pietrangelo | D | NHL | St. Louis Blues |
Jake Muzzin | D | NHL | Los Angeles Kings |
Brent Burns | D | NHL | San Jose Sharks |
Joe Thornton | F | NHL | San Jose Sharks |
Brad Marchand | F | NHL | Boston Bruins |
Claude Giroux | F | NHL | Philadelphia Flyers |
Matt Duchene | F | NHL | Colorado Avalanche |
Jamie Benn | F | NHL | Dallas Stars |
Patrice Bergeron | F | NHL | Boston Bruins |
Steven Stamkos | F | NHL | Tampa Bay Lightning |
Jeff Carter | F | NHL | Los Angeles Kings |
John Tavares | F | NHL | New York Islanders |
Sidney Crosby | F | NHL | Pittsburgh Penguins |
Jonathan Toews | F | NHL | Chicago Blackhawks |
Ryan Getzlaf | F | NHL | Anaheim Ducks |
Tyler Seguin | F | NHL | Dallas Stars |
When the preliminary roster was announced back in March, Hockey Canada brass made it very clear that Carey Price was their choice to start in nets. Given his magnificent performance during the gold medal effort in Sochi, that job will be his as long as he is good to go when the action starts. On the off chance he isn't, the heir apparent would have to be Braden Holtby.
Eyebrows were definitely raised when Marc-Edouard Vlasic made the preliminary roster over P.K. Subban, and they'll stay there now that he is definitely not going. Putting aside bias, Subban is definitely one of the best defencemen Canada has to offer, and his exclusion is a pretty significant oversight.
In any case, the overall roster is very strong, which is important because Canada will as always have the pressure of only one desired result.