(Reuters) -Canada coach Claude Julien said fans can still expect to see ice hockey “the Canadian way” at next month’s Beijing Olympics as 2010 gold medal winner Eric Staal was on Tuesday named in a team assembled from outside the NHL.
Staal, who scored 441 goals and 1,031 points in his 17-year National Hockey League career, will be the leader on a squad cobbled together from European, minor and junior leagues after the NHL decided in December to end its Olympic participation after a surge in COVID-19 cases forced the postponement of more than 100 games.
Canada was among the nations hardest hit by the NHL’s decision.
Instead of stocking its roster with NHL All-Stars and future Hall of Famers, Canada was left scrambling to find coaching staff and players.
“If we have a challenge, that means every other team at the Olympics is having the same challenge,” head coach Julien said after the 25-player roster was announced.
“So we just have to handle it the right way, the proper way, be as prepared as we can and be willing to adjust.”
Julien, who was an assistant coach for Canada during their gold medal-winning bid at the 2014 Olympics, said roughly 20 players had arrived for training in Switzerland, with more expected to arrive soon.
“We always talk about playing the Canadian way… we’re an aggressive team,” Julien told reporters.
“We want to move the puck quick, we like to play fast. We like to be in your face kind of thing. So that doesn’t change.”
Joining Staal are some young players that boast future all-star pedigrees, including Owen Power, the 19-year-old university defenceman taken with the first overall pick by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2021 NHL draft.
Forward Mason McTavish, 18, the number three overall selection by the Anaheim Ducks will be the youngest player.
“Love the look of our line up and the balance we have,” said Staal, the marquee name on the Canadian roster after he helped the Montreal Canadiens run to the Stanley Cup final last season but was unsigned this year and available to the national team.
The 37-year-old joined the American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild earlier this month with the goal of getting fit to be considered for a spot on the Canadian Olympic roster.
“It’s just sometimes funny how things work and how things work out,” he told reporters.
“I kept skating, staying in shape and then sometimes an opportunity like this just kind of comes and falls in your lap and you need to cherish and relish that moment.”
Since NHL players were welcomed to play in the Olympics at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games, Canada has won gold three times but without NHL players settled for bronze in Pyeongchang while Russia took top spot on the podium beating Germany 4-3 in overtime.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto, additional reporting by Amy Tennery in New York. Editing by Toby Davis)
