Olympics: OG 2022: Will we see there Crosby, Ovie, Chara ...?

[Scott Stevens]

If NHLers are there Hockey Canada will take Crosby if he is remotely healthy. He's at a level where he goes as long as he is heath, ala Yzerman and Lemieux in the mid 2000s.

Team Canada did not include Yzerman or Lemieux in 2006, the only Olympics during the mid 2000s.

 

[JackSlater]

Team Canada did not include Yzerman or Lemieux in 2006, the only Olympics during the mid 2000s.

Gretzky said that they had spots on the team if they wanted, and both refused. Thankfully.

 

[Scott Stevens]

Gretzky said that they had spots on the team if they wanted, and both refused. Thankfully.

Ahh, I didn’t know that part of it. Thank you for the info!

I can’t help but wonder who would have been left behind had 19 and 66 accepted.

Maybe 2 of Draper, Doan, and Bertuzzi?

 

[JackSlater]

Ahh, I didn’t know that part of it. Thank you for the info!

I can’t help but wonder who would have been left behind had 19 and 66 accepted.

Maybe 2 of Draper, Doan, and Bertuzzi?

I'd say that you are probably correct that it's two of those three forwards, but who knows. Yzerman and Lemieux would likely have been wingers (as Yzerman was in 2002 an Lemieux was in 2004) and each of those players was a winger for Canada internationally. Draper looks like the easiest player to drop, though his role (providing defence and speed) was completely different than the role that either Yzerman or Lemieux would have played. Doan and Bertuzzi were slow wingers like Lemieux and Yzerman would have been, but Gretzky had odd attachments to both - Doan as the franchise player on Gretzky's Coyotes and the scorer of the World Cup clinching goal in 2004, Bertuzzi as a guy Gretzky publicly had sympathy for and wanted on the team following the Moore incident.

The only other forward who seems reasonable to leave off is Smyth, but I am not sure that Gretzky wanted to leave off a 2002 returnee who had been so loyal to Hockey Canada.

 

[waitin425]

Crosby will be there in 2022. It will be an absolute shame if the greatest player of this generation only plays in two Olympics. Side note, he should have been there in 2006 too

 

[powerstuck]

I hope NHL is prohibited from participating in 2022 games.