In an unfortunate update, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that Tampa Bay Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli will be unable to play for Team Canada in the upcoming Olympics due to injury. Friedman added that Sam Bennett would replace Cirelli on Team Canada’s roster.
Cirelli, 28, sustained the injury in Tampa Bay’s Stadium Series win over the Boston Bruins. He was on the receiving end of a hard hit from Bruins forward Mark Kastelic in the first period and didn’t return to the game. He finished the game with a +1 rating in 6:25 of action.
Since then, there haven’t been any firm updates. After the game, head coach Jon Cooper was quoted as saying, “It was kind of a stinger. Cirell’s a tough kid. For him not to come back, clearly, there’s something wrong with him. So hopefully he’ll be okay. There’s some big games coming up ahead of him.”
Unfortunately, those big games will have to wait for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s a tough break for a player who has dramatically turned his career around in recent years and helped Team Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off last season.
Back in the 2022-23 season, after scoring 11 goals and 29 points in 58 games, Cirelli became a legitimate trade candidate for the Lightning. Tampa Bay had just signed him to an eight-year, $50MM extension, a high price to play for a center that wasn’t always available.
Still, over the last two years, he’s made that contract look well worth it, scoring 42 goals and 94 points in 129 games with a 49.4% success rate in the faceoff dot. Furthermore, he’s responsible on his own end, managing a 91.2% on-ice SV% at even strength through 49 games this season.
While it’s a depressing development for Cirelli, Team Canada has added more snarl to their forward core at the very least. Bennett scored one goal in three games during last year’s 4 Nations tournament. He famously got into a fight with Brady Tkachuk during the opening minutes of the much-awaited tilt with the United States. Outside of the obvious, Olympic opponents will be extra intimidated by Team Canada, which will also have Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson.
It’ll be interesting to see how Bennett responds offensively. Due to the number of injuries suffered by the Panthers this year, Bennett has earned more responsibility. At this time last year, he had scored 17 goals and 33 points in 53 games. This season, he has 19 goals and 42 points in 55 contests.
While that isn’t the typical production of a forward on Team Canada, Bennett tends to raise his game when the lights are brightest. Over the past three postseasons, Bennett has helped Florida reach three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, scoring 27 goals and 51 points in 62 games, culminating in the Conn Smythe Trophy last season.
Is Bennett good to go after his injury last night?
@Gbear – I just finished the “Frankly Hockey” podcast on YT, where they talked about that. Walt Jr. #1 had postgame comments, and said “We are in trouble right now.” He didn’t elaborate on Bennett, naturally, but when the guys on the podcast were talking about this replacement news, it seemed they had the same reaction as when I heard it from them. WTF? Is he really injured, or not? It almost hinted at him being “NHL injured”, so that he can heal up for the Olympics. Who knows?
Mac
Yeah its hard to tell. Especially since PoMo is notoriously giving vague health updates we wont really know until the olympics kick off i guess.
@Begamin – Yeah, Paul is definitely old-school when it comes to injury reporting.
@Mac- Meanwhile here in the USA, we have three 30 goal scorers and left all of them off the team. Almost wishing a few Rangers, I mean, players get nicked up in the next few days so the roster can be improved. š
@Gbear – The way the team is built, it almost looks like Darryl Sutter’s hands are in there, mucking things up. And he isn’t from our country! š¤
Thatās really unfortunate & sucks for Anthony Cirelli. I feel bad for him under such crappy circumstances, though from a fan perspective, I would rather have him healthy for the rest of the season and have him for a deep run in the Stanley Cup playoffs than the Olympics. But again, really unfortunate for him to miss out as he was deserving to be there.
Sam Bennett replacing him is interesting especially since Bennett himself is currently injured from last nightās game. Weāll see how that plays out.
Just tell Schief to hit more, but I feel like a shutdown centre/forward is needed…
Suzuki is one of the best defensive forwards in the league.
LOL
Hyman should be next add. Lots of center options already on team.
Mark Scheifele or Bedard should be called in.
A blessing in disguise for Cirelli, And the Lightning.
And Team Canada.
Good…karma is biting this favoritism from this corrupt team management…now hopefully Bennett misses them too. Then they should get to the ones who should have made the team in the first place.
LOL….A committee picks and prefers winners…not show ponies. Bennet and Cirelli have something in common…many others do not. That is clutch performance in meaningful hockey. Plus, both, play with grit and selflessness.
@Kael – Karma?!? Youāre an absolute idiot. Also, you quite obviously have no clue or understanding why certain players get picked and what not. Each player is picked for specific reasons for the teamās needs. Youāre probably one of those dunces who thinks all the top āgoal scorersā be the only ones that should go SMH. Thanks for sharing your ignorant insight.
Wow solid tantrum. Not so long ago you tossed out a sermon about how lowbrow it is to take personal shots at someone rather that sticking to hockey. Your most recent work seems to mark you as a hypocrite.
and that would be who in your eyes
Bedard shouldāve been the guy to slot in, yeah Bennett just won the conn smythe but he hasnāt been all that great this year, til Bedard went down with an injury earlier in the year he was top 4 in points all season up to his injury and is overall by far the best player available not currently on an olympic roster
It’s all about roles. I agree that Bedard has a better year than Bennett, but Bedard really isn’t suited to play a 4th line role. That was where Cirelli was slotted. Bennett can play there & it could actually help his game. He’s had to play up in the lineup this season with Barkov out. He wouldn’t be asked to be a top two line center with Canada. That means he would get more favorable matchups with the other teams defense.
Bennett should have been Canadaās 4C over Cirelli anyway.
Thatās highly debatable. Just on differential alone Cirelli (+30) is superior than Bennett (-10).
@Thunder
Bennett also has more goals, assists, and points playing on a lesser team that’s been decimated by injuries all season long. If Florida had Barkov, Tkachuk, Lundell, and Marchand healthy more often than not I am sure his differential would be much closer than the 40 point difference it is.
@wreckage
On a lesser team?ā¦Dude, Tampa has been decimated more with injuries than Florida has for the majority of the season. The difference is Tampa is winning while Florida isnāt. The majority of Floridaās top six has played the most of their games where Tampa hasnāt. Tampa hasnāt had their full roster together all season. Donāt give me the injury excuse as every team, some more than others have been decimated with injuries this season.
You want to get into statistics between Bennett and Cirelli okay:
Bennettās GF% is 53.3 while Cirelliās is 71.2. Bennettās XGF% is 50.0 while Cirelliās is 57.0
Bennettās RELXGF% is -1.6 while Cirelli is 5.0
Bennettās Pen Diff is 14 while Cirelli is -1
Furthermore the goals, assists, and points differentials are rather small between the 2 players.
Iām just scratching the surface but when you get into the metrics, Cirelli measures up over Bennett.
@Thunder
You may want to check your stats again. Florida has lost FAR more man games to their top 6 than Tampa. Barkov hasn’t played one single game, Tkachuk has missed 47. Tampa’s top 6 has missed a total of 30 games. Florida’s has missed over 110.