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Hockey Canada Announces 2022 IIHF World Championship Roster

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The roster is set, with just a few days to go before things kick off for Hockey Canada at the 2022 IIHF World Championship. The defending gold medalists will be icing a rather youthful roster this season, highlighted by some of the league’s up-and-coming stars, along with some established top-end youngsters.

The full roster will be:

G Chris Driedger
G Logan Thompson
G Matt Tomkins

D Thomas Chabot
D Ryan Graves
D Nick Holden
D Dysin Mayo
D Travis Sanheim
D Damon Severson
D Zach Whitecloud

F Josh Anderson
F Mathew Barzal
F Drake Batherson
F Max Comtois
F Dylan Cozens
F Pierre-Luc Dubois
F Morgan Geekie
F Noah Gregor
F Kent Johnson
F Adam Lowry
F Dawson Mercer
F Eric O’Dell
F Nicolas Roy
F Cole Sillinger

For a player like Mayo, this selection truly solidifies the hard work he has put in over years of grinding in the minor leagues. The fifth-round pick spent parts of seven seasons in the AHL before arriving this year with the Arizona Coyotes and becoming one of the team’s most reliable options. Now 25, he’ll be suiting up for his country for the first time at a major international tournament.

Meanwhile, someone like Cozens is taking the next step in representing his country, after last captaining Team Canada at the 2021 World Juniors (where he scored an incredible 16 points in seven games). The Buffalo Sabres forward had 38 points in his first full-length NHL season and has huge upside as a potential franchise cornerstone. The same could be said for players like Johnson and Sillinger, two names that will likely drive the offense for years to come in Columbus.

Perhaps the most interesting name in the group is Dubois, given the Winnipeg Jets center doesn’t have a contract for next season. Pending restricted free agents, especially ones as important as Dubois, usually skip the tournament because of insurance issues and the risk of injury. Instead, he’ll head overseas to play in a tournament he’s already attended twice previously, despite still just being 23 years old.

Morning Notes: Rangers, Memorial Cup, Cozens

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Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes was clear today that he’s open for business and just before he spoke to the media, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweeted out an interesting thought. LeBrun connected the Canadiens with the New York Rangers, suggesting that Montreal “covets” some Rangers prospects and would rather add those than more draft picks.

It’s easy to understand why the Montreal front office could be interested in some of New York’s prospects, given Jeff Gorton was the one who drafted or acquired most of them, before being dismissed a little under a year ago. The Canadiens are also in discussions with former Rangers director of European scouting Nick Bobrov, according to Eric Engels of Sportsnet, who would also have familiarity with many of the team’s young players.

  • The Memorial Cup has new dates after disruptions to the league schedules forced it to be pushed back. The event, which pits the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL champions and a host team against each other, will be held between June 20-29 this year. The Saint John Seadogs will be the host, and will open things up with a game against the OHL champion on the first day. Notably, this will likely be the last big scouting event before the 2022 NHL Draft, which is scheduled for July 7 in Montreal.
  • Dylan Cozens has escaped a suspension but owes the league $2,235.42 for his cross-check on Brock Nelson last night. The young Buffalo Sabres forward will now have a fine on his supplementary discipline record, meaning any future incidents will be looked at with even more scrutiny. Cozens followed Nelson up the ice to deliver the cross-check from behind after it appeared as though the Islanders’ player got his stick between Cozens’ legs and earned a two-minute minor on the play.

East Notes: Zaitsev, Canadiens, Shesterkin, Sabres, Daley

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The Senators will be without defenseman Nikita Zaitsev longer than expected as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays (Twitter link) that the veteran hasn’t resumed skating and will likely be out through the end of the month.  Originally, it was expected that he’d miss between three and five weeks due to his heel injury but that will now likely be pushed to six weeks or longer.  The 30-year-old had gotten off to a quiet start to his season with just two points in 22 games while logging 18:32 per night, the lowest ATOI of his career.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • As a result of seven more players entering COVID protocols in recent days, the Canadiens announced that they are extending their pause for two more days through Saturday. Montreal recently had a game next week against New Jersey postponed and now have nine games that need to be rescheduled.  They’re next scheduled to play on Wednesday against Boston.
  • Still with Montreal, defensive prospect Arber Xhekaj was traded in the OHL as the Hamilton Bulldogs announced his acquisition in exchange for five draft picks along with winger Navrin Mutter. Xhekaj was undrafted in both the OHL and NHL but turned a rookie camp tryout into an entry-level contract with the Canadiens late in the preseason.  Meanwhile, Mutter got into three games with Calgary’s farm team in Stockton last season but no team holds his NHL rights.
  • Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin was a late scratch for their game against Vegas as the Rangers announced (Twitter link) that the netminder was placed into COVID protocol. Assuming it’s for a confirmed positive test, he’ll be out for at least the next five days.  Keith Kinkaid was recalled from the taxi squad in a corresponding roster move.
  • The Sabres got some good news on the COVID protocol front today as the team announced (Twitter link) prior to their game against San Jose that centers Dylan Cozens, Zemgus Girgensons, and Mark Jankowski were all cleared to return. The trio last played on December 17th and each missed three games.
  • While the Florida Everblades of the ECHL raised some eyebrows today when they announced the signing of Penguins staffer Trevor Daley, Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes (Twitter link) that Daley will remain in his advisory role with Pittsburgh. With ECHL teams ravaged by COVID-19, injuries and recalls, it appears the Everblades are going to use Daley for a game or two until they get some of their players back.  Daley last played back in the 2019-20 season with Detroit.

Sabres Place Three In COVID Protocol

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The Sabres have announced that head coach Don Granato along with center Dylan Cozens and Mark Jankowski have all been placed in COVID protocol.  They added that all three are currently asymptomatic although under the current NHL protocols, all three will miss at least the next three days.

Cozens is off to a good start to his sophomore season, collecting eight goals and seven assists in 30 games, good for sixth in scoring on the Sabres.  Meanwhile, Jankowski was recently converted to an NHL contract and had played in four games since then, picking up an assist while logging nearly 13 minutes a night in ice time.  The two join Zemgus Girgensons and Vinnie Hinostroza as those that are currently unavailable while Granato is one of eight head coaches currently in COVID protocol.

Buffalo is currently slated to return to the ice on Wednesday against New Jersey unless there are further changes made to the schedule with a decision on that front expected later today.

Atlantic Notes: Cozens, Seider, Sogaard

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With the never-ending rumors of Jack Eichel’s eventual trade on top of the departures of several other core Sabres this summer, its fair to wonder who will fill the leadership vacuum in Buffalo. However, young standout Dylan Cozens is more than ready to take on that role. Appearing on WGR 550 in Buffalo, the 2019 seventh overall pick stated that he is confident in his ability to lead this next generation of Sabres. “I think definitely I could go out and be a leader on this team,” Cozens said. “Just by the way I play, leading by example and being a voice in the room. I think it’s something I’m ready to do. I want to lead by example and be a guy that guys can look to if they need anything or look to to inspire them. That’s what I’ve always been growing up – the guy that wants to lead and do things the right way.” Part of what makes Cozens a great candidate to lead Buffalo for years to come is an optimism that has been missing from other core members through a dark stretch for the franchise. “I think that we’re going to surprise a lot of people this year,” Cozens believes. “Everyone’s doubting us because we’re a young team, but if you look at the second half of last season, we were beating those veteran teams. So I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people and we’re going to have a good year.”

    • The Detroit Red Wings are looking forward to prodigious defenseman Moritz Seider developing into a leader for their club in the future. Yet, he was nowhere to be found on the team’s roster for the upcoming Traverse City Prospects Tournament. However, Red Wings Director of Player Development Shawn Horcoff tells The Athletic’s Max Bultman that this is actually an endorsement of Seider’s position in the organization rather than an indictment. Although Seider has yet to see any NHL action, Detroit is so confident in his ability to make the roster this season that they did not feel they needed to use a roster spot on him in the development tournament. “With Moritz, he’s played two years of pro now – he spent a full year in Grand Rapids, spent a full year over in Europe playing,” Horcoff explained. “Frankly, there’s some younger players that we wanted to see on the (Traverse City Tournament) roster and we just wanted to make sure that Mo was ready to go for main camp.” Fear not, Wings fans; the team clearly has no concerns about their top prospect stepping into the NHL lineup and making an impact this year.
    • The Ottawa Senators could face a difficult decision with young goaltender Mads Sogaard this season. As Bruce Garrioch details for the Ottawa Sun, the impressive prospect keeper could very well be in line for a roster spot at the Olympics for Team Denmark, making their first men’s hockey appearance at the Winter Games. Sogaard served as the team’s backup in qualifying tournaments this summer and while the those contests were played without presumptive starter, the Carolina Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen, Sogaard is still likely to be the Danes’ first choice at third-string behind Andersen and qualifying starter Sebastian Dahm. The problem is that the AHL does not have an Olympic break like the NHL. While Ottawa’s players will have full flexibility to attend the Games if selected, Belleville’s may not. Garrioch points out that the farm team has ten games during the NHL’s Olympic break and, depending on how the organization’s goalie depth plays out this season, that could be a number of missed starts for Sogaard and a detriment to Belleville as well. The massive 6’7″ keeper had a strong first pro season last year and if fellow promising youngster Filip Gustavsson cracks the Ottawa roster, Sogaard could be the starter for Belleville. Will the Senators allow him to leave the team for an extended period in order to ride the bench for his country?

Snapshots: Blue Jackets, Sabres, Buyouts, DeAngelo

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Between new head coach Brad Larsen, promoted from his previous role as assistant, and newly hired assistants Pascal Vincent and Sylvain Lefebvre, the Blue Jackets will have a combined 15 seasons as NHL assistants, 13 seasons as AHL head coaches, 11 seasons as a junior head coaches, six seasons as AHL assistants, and over 1,200 NHL games played worth of experience behind the bench. The one thing they don’t have? Any experience as an NHL head coach. As Aaron Portzline writes for The Athletic, there is zero NHL head coach experience in the entire Columbus organization right now and while GM Jarmo Kekalainen isn’t worried, he also isn’t above addressing that issue. Kekalainen is at least considering adding an advisor to the coaching staff; a veteran NHL head coach to help guide Larsen and company through their first season with a the re-tooling Blue Jackets. Portzline believes that one name who could certainly be in the mix is Jacques Martin, as the 68-year-old with 16 seasons as an NHL head coach is believed to be looking for this type of role. Other candidates will also surely emerge if and when Columbus decides that they are officially looking to fill the position.

  • Did Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams tip his hand in a recent interview with Pierre LeBrun for The Athletic? Discussing his team’s rebuilding plans, Adams stated the following:

(Rasmus) Dahlin, (Dylan) Cozens, (Casey) Mittelstadt, these are very, very young players… And I’ve been energized about this young core of Sabres we have that are hungry and they want to be part of the solution. … These guys are proud to be Buffalo Sabres, they want to fix this and get this right, they want to move forward together. So that’s the young core that we’re working to build around.

Sure, these are all key pieces for the Sabres in their rebuild. However, Adams did not mention the likes of Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, or Victor Olofsson, who are only marginally older than that group. His use of the words “proud to be Buffalo Sabres” and “want to be part of the solution” also feels purposeful, as if there are others on the team who are not and possibly that is why they are no longer part of the rebuild plans. While rumors have been swirling around Eichel and to some extent Reinhart as well, perhaps this is a real indication that Buffalo will be making major changes this summer.

  • The NHL’s buyout window opens 24 hours after the Stanley Cup is awarded, which could be as early as later tonight. In anticipation, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli lists ten names (and some honorable mentions) who could be buyout candidates. While much of this is educated speculation, Seravalli does have a scoop on his No. 1 name on the list, New York Rangers defenseman Anthony DeAngelo. Seravalli reports that the Rangers officially finalized a plan to buyout DeAngelo last week, a move that has been a long time coming since he was placed on leave in January for off-ice conduct. What remains to be seen is when exactly the buyout will be executed. The Rangers don’t need DeAngelo for the upcoming Expansion Draft, with Anthony Bitetto meeting exposure criteria and not expected to be protected, however New York may want to leave him in case they are able to tempt the Seattle. Even if the Kraken don’t bite, DeAngelo’s skill is enough to make him an intriguing free agent this summer following his buyout, even after a year off and some character concerns.

Injury Updates: Forsberg, Hjalmarsson, Cozens, Penguins

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The Predators have made plenty of progress in the Central Division standings in recent weeks despite a long list of injuries.  That list has grown as the team announced (Twitter link) that winger Filip Forsberg is now listed as week-to-week due to the upper-body injury that has caused him to miss the last three games.  Forsberg leads Nashville in scoring with 29 points (11-18-29) in 34 games and on a team that isn’t scoring much, his absence will be felt.  Forsberg joins Brad Richardson, Matt Duchene, Ryan Ellis, Mark Borowiecki, and Luca Sbisa as players that are listed as being out week-to-week.

More injury news from around the league:

  • Coyotes defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson has suffered a setback as he works his way back from an upper-body injury, notes Craig Morgan of AZ Coyotes Insider (Twitter link). The veteran was injured last Monday and while the hope was that he’d be back soon, he did not accompany Arizona on their nine-game road trip.  Hjalmarsson has four assists in 29 games so far this season.
  • Sabres forward Dylan Cozens could return as soon as next week after sustaining an arm injury on Monday night, relays Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. It has been a trying year for the rookie as he has been limited to just four goals and two assists in 25 games while missing four games with another upper-body injury earlier this month.
  • Penguins forwards Brandon Tanev and Teddy Blueger returned to practice today, reports Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Tanev has missed nearly two weeks due to an upper-body injury while Blueger has missed just over two weeks with an upper-body issue of his own.  It’s not all good news on the injury front for Pittsburgh, however, as goalie Tristan Jarry didn’t skate with the team.  He left Monday’s game after the first period with an upper-body injury and is currently listed as day-to-day.

East Notes: Lundqvist, Ovechkin, Cozens, Senyshyn

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When Henrik Lundqvist was told he required open-heart surgery late last year, he was understandably ruled out for the season.  Last month, he resumed on-ice activities and thoughts of a possible return started to trickle in.  Speaking with reporters yesterday including Samantha Pell of the Washington Post, Capitals GM Brian MacLellan acknowledged that he couldn’t rule out the possibility that the 39-year-old coming back though he qualified his statement by noting that Lundqvist playing remains “highly unlikely”.

With the Capitals using youngsters Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov this season, the idea of adding a veteran third goalie (even with Craig Anderson on the taxi squad) has come up.  While Lundqvist is still months away from making a decision about whether or not he could return, it’s now an option that can’t be ruled out entirely.  Even at that, that’s great news for him and just possibly for Washington eventually as well.

More from the East Division:

  • Also from Pell’s piece, MacLellan didn’t provide much of an update on the status of extension talks for captain Alex Ovechkin. He did express optimism that a deal will eventually get done with both sides needing to find the “sweet spot” that they can agree on.  Ovechkin is off to a bit of a slower start by his standards with nine goals in 22 games although he’s only one off the Capitals lead in that department.
  • Sabres forward Dylan Cozens is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, relays Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald. The rookie is being evaluated to determine the severity of the issue, one that occurred early in the third period on Thursday against Pittsburgh.  The 20-year-old has just five points in 20 games this season as he adapts to NHL action but had been subbing as the top center for Jack Eichel the last couple of games.
  • Zach Senyshyn’s season debut with the Bruins on Thursday will be his last NHL contest for a bit. Boston Hockey Now’s Joe Haggerty notes that the winger suffered an upper-body injury in that game with head coach Bruce Cassidy stating that “he’s going to miss some time”.  The 23-year-old was a first-round pick in 2015 but has been limited to just seven games at the top level so far.

Jack Eichel Dealing With Upper-Body Injury

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Saturday: While head coach Ralph Krueger was unable to disclose a timeline, he did tell reporters including John Vogl of The Athletic that Eichel is out “for the foreseeable future” and that he is unable to put a date on how long he will be out.  Krueger also declined to specify if his top center needs surgery or just rest.

Tuesday: The Buffalo Sabres don’t need any more bad news, but they got some anyway. Jack Eichel will miss tonight’s game with an upper-body injury and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that there are “rumblings” that he could be out for longer. Eichel was seen grabbing his neck over the weekend after being pushed into the boards behind the New York Islanders net, though it is not clear if that is the injury he is currently dealing with.

At Sabres practice, Dylan Cozens has moved into the first-line center role between Taylor Hall and Sam Reinhart according to Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. While that is certainly exciting for the young forward and his fans, losing Eichel for any significant length of time would all but guarantee that the Sabres season is over. The team is already sitting in last place in the NHL with just six wins in 23 games.

This has been a season to forget for Eichel personally too, even though he does have 18 points in 21 games. Only two of those are goals, one of which was a powerplay marker. That means the $10MM center has exactly one even-strength goal on the year, a huge reason why the team is struggling so much. Even Eichel’s ice time has come down this season, which has had some speculating over whether he was already playing hurt.

It’s injury to insult now the Sabres these days, who can’t seem to find a silver lining in anything that happens. The team takes on the Philadelphia Flyers this evening.

COVID Protocol Related Absences: 02/16/21

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Each day, the NHL will publicly release the list of players that are unavailable to their respective teams due to being in COVID-19 Protocol. While the league is still waiting for a report from the Kings here are today’s results for the other 30 teams:

Buffalo – Casey Mittelstadt
Colorado –  Samuel Girard, Tyson Jost, Gabriel Landeskog, Hunter Miska
Los Angeles – TBA
Minnesota –  Jonas Brodin, Brad Hunt, Victor Rask, Carson Soucy, Cam Talbot
New Jersey – Nico Hischier, Dmitry Kulikov, Travis Zajac
NY Rangers – Filip Chytil
Ottawa – Ryan Dzingel
Philadelphia – Justin Braun, Morgan Frost, Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Oskar Lindblom, Jakub Voracek
Vegas – Tomas Nosek

As a reminder, inclusion on this list does not mean that a player has tested positive for Coronavirus or even that they have been confirmed as a close contact to another positive person. Included in the NHL’s list of possible reasons for someone being on the list is are the following:

(1) an initial positive test which remains unconfirmed until confirmatory testing is completed pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (2) mandated isolation for symptomatic individuals pursuant to the Positive Test Protocol; (3) required quarantine as a high-risk close contact in accordance with the Positive Test Protocol; (4) isolation based on a confirmed positive test result and/or; (5) quarantine for travel or other reasons as outlined in the COVID-19 Protocol

Players removed today: Dylan Cozens, Buffalo Sabres; Curtis Lazar, Buffalo Sabres; Jake McCabe, Buffalo Sabres; Brandon Montour, Buffalo Sabres; Rasmus Ristolainen, Buffalo Sabres; Nikita Gusev, New Jersey Devils

The Sabres had several players come off again today, though Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News confirmed this morning that Montour and McCabe shouldn’t have been included on yesterday’s list either. Both of those two practiced yesterday as well. The Sabres are back in action tonight against the Islanders after suffering a 3-1 loss in their first game in more than two weeks last night.

With no new additions today, the list of names has been dramatically reduced from a week ago.

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