The Channel One Cup, an international tournament played in mid-December in Russia, certainly doesn’t usually draw much attention from North American hockey fans. It has been absolutely dominated by Russian teams throughout its history, as it is made up of players from club teams from outside the NHL. This year though there is a bit more intrigue, as the roster announced today by Hockey Canada likely includes many of the same players that will suit up for the 2022 Beijing Olympics should the NHL and NHLPA decide against participation.
The group that was announced today includes many familiar NHL names and is as follows:
F Josh Currie
F Taylor Beck
F Ben Street
F Jordan Weal
F Adam Tambellini
F Ryan Spooner
F Daniel Audette
F Eric Fehr
F Corban Knight
F Eric O’Dell
F Tyler Graovac
F Landon Ferraro
F Philippe Maillet
F Cody Kunyk
D Brandon Gormley
D John Gilmour
D Morgan Ellis
D Jason Demers
D Mat Robinson
D Chay Genoway
D Reece Scarlett
D Trevor Murphy
G Eddie Pasquale
G Justin Pogge
The coaching staff and management group are also quite familiar to NHL fans, led by general manager Shane Doan. Claude Julien will serve as the team’s head coach, but after Bruce Boudreau and Scott Walker–originally pegged as assistants–moved on to the Vancouver Canucks, he’ll now be joined behind the bench by Doan and Tyler Dietrich.
Interestingly enough, the Spengler Cup coaching staff will now also have Nolan Baumgartner and Jeremy Colliton, two men that were recently let go by their NHL organizations. That tournament kicks off on December 26 and will be another pre-Olympics tune-up for players that may end up in Beijing in a few months.
That’s the way it should be non house hold names that should be representing their country…not Multi millionaires…
Let’s be honest everyone wants to see Crosby vs Kane, Ovi and others it’s way more fun to watch so stop complaining
I agree 100%. The last Olympics were better in my opinion when the NHL didn’t go when it was in South Korea. The only problem is you get the stacked Russian team that is much better than everybody else, but there’s not much that can be done about that. I’ve never really been able to get into the Olympic or World Cup of hockey for whatever reason.
then you can watch this instead of the Olympics
MEH. Olympics. Would rather watch the All Stars Games.
Let the Olympics die a slow death imo.
It’s no longer relevant.
It costs everyone too much money, and benefits the typical… the rich.
So Kariya,Lindros,Juneau or Burke are players that benefited by playing in the Olympics so I am not complaining just stating a fact…that’s just the Canadian players go and look at other countries…and yes Russia is usually stacked but that brings the best out in other players…if you call that complaining well enjoy millionaires so called playing for their country that’s why junior or NCAA is alot better because this kids have to prove themselves….