Beijing 2022: five NHL players to keep your eye on at the Winter Olympics

The National Hockey League’s best of the best will be making their way to China in February for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Hockey fans across the planet are salivating at this tournament, as NHL players did not make the trip to South Korea in 2018 because of a number of issues between the players and league management.

Now with a new collective bargaining agreement in place, the best 150 or so skaters will be packing their bags in early 2022 and heading into Beijing’s “closed loop” for what should be a tournament for the ages.

While superstars like Canadian Connor McDavid, who plays for the Edmonton Oilers, and American Auston Matthews, who plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs, are expected to headline the showcase of talent, any hockey fan knows these types of international events produce some heroes in and of themselves.

With that in mind here are five players to keep your eye on when Beijing’s showpiece event, men’s ice hockey, kicks off on February 4 at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium and Wukesong Arena.

Nathan MacKinnon, forward, Canada

Canada is a powerhouse team like no other. With McDavid and Pittsburgh Penguin generational talent Sidney Crosby down the middle at centre, the wealth and riches upfront are plentiful. But if anyone is not happy about being overlooked, and looking for a redemption season in the NHL, it’s Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon.

He may be the fastest skater on the planet, although McDavid may have something to say about that, and MacKinnon’s career has been marred by playoff disappointment. The last three seasons his Avs have lost in the second round, and have been touted as Stanley Cup contenders once again this season.

MacKinnon’s Avs are off to a slow start for the 2021-22 campaign, but you can put money on the fact that heading into the Olympics, and the play-offs, he will be at his best and out to prove everyone he is more than a Canadian understudy.

Philipp Grubauer, goalie, Germany

Germany are Beijing 2022’s ultimate dark horse. They will not be filled with NHL talent like Canada, the US and Sweden, but they have arguably the second-best player on the planet in Leon Draisaitl (after McDavid). Hockey fans also know these are the types of tournaments where a hot goalie can steal games and vault a Cinderella team to the promised land, and Germany has a perfect candidate in Grubauer.

Dominick Hasek of the Czech Republic is the best example of a goalie stealing gold at the Olympics, but others, including Jaroslav Halak of Slovakia and of course the Soviet Union’s Vladislav Tretiak have all played serious spoiler roles. Grubauer, who is now with the expansion Seattle Kraken, is the type of goalie who could get hot and cause a lot of issues for other teams. Look for him and Germany to make a statement in a tournament where they are being overlooked among the heavyweights.

Patrick Kane, forward, United States

When it comes to “hands”, which is hockey talk for players with puck-handling skills, there is no one better than Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane. He has won three Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks, but the last was in 2015 and the squad has been in decline since.

Kane is the type of player who makes his line mates better as he is known for being one of the most skilled passers of the modern era. Now he gets to play with one of the best shooters on the planet in Matthews.

Kane is also a shoot-out wizard, and could be called upon multiple times under IIHF rules, to break a tie in spectacular fashion. Chances are he will be the linchpin of the US offence, and this team’s gold-medal hopes may do or die on his chemistry with Matthews.

Victor Hedman, defence, Sweden

He is the ultimate workhorse in the NHL. He logs crucial minutes for his Tampa Bay Lightning, and he’s pretty good at his job. How good? The Lightning have won the last two Stanley Cups, and Hedman won the Conn Smythe, which is given to the play-off MVP, in 2020.

Hedman is a franchise defenceman that you build a team around, and he will have ample support with the likes of Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers and Gabriel Landeskog, who is MacKinnon’s teammate in Colorado. However Sweden’s hopes will surely lie in how well Hedman can smother the likes of Canada and the US, and shut down two of the most potent offences he will have ever faced in his entire career.

Kirill Kaprizov, forward, Russian Olympic Committee

While Russia will always be Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin’s team, there is new blood in town. Kaprizov, who plays for the Minnesota Wild, hasn’t even played 70 games in the NHL but is already being touted as the next Ovechkin.

The 24-year-old signed a five-year, US$45 million contract with the Wild in September, which makes him the highest-paid NHL second-year player of all-time.

If Russia (or Russian Olympic Committee if you’re getting technical, because of the country’s doping ban) are finally going to kick the monkey off their back and win gold (with NHLers after taking gold without them in Pyeongchang, they will do so by outscoring everyone. Atop that scoresheet every game could be Kaprizov as the youngster has all the tools to put in a MVP calibre performance in China.