Only on HFB is Mitch 3rd in league scoring Marner not Team Canada material Whilst Tom Wilson must be brought to “play in multiple situations”
For the record, I have Marner on there for sure. I just hope he doesn't get too fancy in this short tournament and forget to shoot when it would help the most. That's all.
Wilson at best would be a 13th forward. Him being on the team is not a strange idea. Canada always picks a guy similar to him. Canada used to win gold all of the time with somewhat of a ghost roster and an "energy line" that was often the best line on the team. They have to be able to score too of course, but those lines always could.
Think Brenden Morrow in 2010. There are some skilled guys who deserved it perhaps and were better than Morrow. St. Louis, Carter, Stamkos, all were sitting at home. Morrow had 2 goals and an assist in 2010. He contributed, let's just say. And he was some much needed grind and sandpaper. Sometimes Canada has relied too much on this. I think 1998 comes to mind. Maybe 2006 as well when they had Smyth, Doan, Bertuzzi and Draper on the team with much more skilled guys at home. But I think you need to keep at least one of them for that reason. Plus Wilson kills penalties. You need more than just Marchand and Bergeron to kill them, you need at least one other forward who is good at it, maybe two. Bottom line is, I can see him on the team for those reasons. I remember Steve Yzerman saying that he wanted Bergeron on the team in 2010 specifically for the scenario that he has a right handed face off specialist. No kidding. Bergeron was not the player he is today, he was injured a lot back then and I wondered how we could leave some more offensive guys off the team, but it was a good choice, even if Bergeron was hurt for some of the 2010 Olympics if I remember. I figure you have at least 9-10 purely offensive guys for your top three lines. The rest still more or less need to score, but you have them in different situations. For example, I could see Wilson playing a game against Team USA and doing pretty good in his role.
To be quite honest, there was serious consideration for Milan Lucic to be on the 2014 Olympic team. He was a hot commodity at that time. He didn't make it, perhaps because of the big ice and skating concerns, but either way, he was considered much in the way Wilson probably is. Let's just say I would be willing to bet his name comes up in meetings.
