Beijing 2022: Canada, US favoured as NHL superstars make return to Olympics, hopefully
- Canadian squad will be heavily favoured with the likes of Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby, but US could play spoiler
- Germany enter the tournament behind superstar Leon Draisaitl and could be a serious dark horse
National Hockey League players look to make their return to the Winter Olympics after sitting out the last edition in South Korea in 2018. The NHL, the players’ association and the International Olympic Committee were unable to come to an agreement on a few issues, which means the superstars sat out.
If all goes well, and NHL players do make their way to China, we can expect one of the most competitive ice hockey competitions in history as a number of nations could win gold in a shortened tournament. The squads are broken down into three groups – the favourites, the contenders and a dark horse squad:
The Favourites
Canada is, of course, once again favoured to win gold. Although they came third in 2018 (without NHL players), they won in 2014 and on home ice in 2010 in Vancouver. Canada’s squad will be full of NHL superstars, the two most notable being Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid.
Crosby will likely be named captain again after leading the squad in Sochi in 2014, but this will most likely be a team built around McDavid in many ways. The speedy centre in on a blazing hot pace in the 2020-21 season in the newly aligned North Division with the six other Canadian teams.
Canada will also have Nathan McKinnon, who has often been overlooked as a legitimate superstar for players like Crosby and McDavid, but has blossomed over the years with a Colorado Avalanche squad who now look like Stanley Cup contenders. The squad’s power lies in its depth, given it could probably field a second team who could compete for gold as well.
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The biggest threat to the Great White North’s dominance will most likely be the United States, who are in the same group along with Germany and hosts China, who will be lucky to escape the tournament alive. The US have often played second fiddle to the Canadians, losing to them in Vancouver in stunning overtime fashion, but this is most definitely not a Games to count them out.
The squad will be lead by 23-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs centre Auston Matthews, and backed by a solid defensive core than will feature Columbus Blue Jackets stalwarts Zack Werenski and Seth Jones. The Americans might also have the edge in goal with Connor Hellebuyck, who has been stellar for the Winnipeg Jets in the past few seasons.
The Contenders
Sweden were the last team, outside of Canada, to win gold with NHL players in the tournament, and they could easily upset the order again this time around. The squad will be full of NHL talent, including Conn Smythe trophy winning defenceman Victor Hedman, who helped his Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup last season.
Russia (or athletes from Russia as they will be known again) will look to repeat after winning the tournament in South Korea, beating Germany in the gold medal match. Expect them to be loaded with firepower up front with stars like Alexander Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov and Artemi Panarin. However, defence will be a question mark for the Russians, as it always is.
An upstart Finnish squad, with snipers like Patrik Laine and Sebastian Aho, could catch fire and make their way into the gold medal game, given they also have one of the most consistent goalies of the past few years in Boston Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask.
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Finally, it’s tough to count out a Czech Republic squad who have the likes of David Pastrnak and two-way centreman David Krejci. They also have goalie Petr Mrazek, who is having a stellar season with the Carolina Hurricanes, although he recently went down with an injury.
Dark Horse
This group has been created for one squad: Germany. They came second at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and this time around will have arguably the game’s second greatest player behind McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, who plays alongside the Canadian for the Edmonton Oilers.
Draisaitl will not be totally surrounded by NHL talent, but this may be a good thing as some squads will have issues with trying to get superstar players enough ice time. Germany will not have that problem as they can build an entire squad around the power forward, and have some young guns to back him up like Tim Stutzle.
Germany could very well get overpowered by teams like Canada and the US, who could line match Draisaitl to shut him down, but in a shortened tournament, all bets are off in do-or-die elimination Games on Olympic-sized ice.
