Hockey Canada is targeting Jan. 11 as the day to announce its roster for the men’s Olympic hockey tournament, Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reported during the Headlines segment Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada.
The significance of this date is the fact it’s nearly a full week after the gold medal game at the world juniors, which will allow Hockey Canada some time to negotiate with the Canadian Hockey League about what teenagers may or not be deemed eligible to participate at the Olympics.
Hockey Canada announced its 20-man Spengler Cup team earlier this week. It’s the final pre-Olympic tournament Hockey Canada can use to evaluate players that could represent Canada at Pyeongchang 2018. If Hockey Canada and the CHL come to some type of agreement, however, it could give general manager Sean Burke and his staff a few more more options when finalizing the roster.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported back in October that Hockey Canada brass had reached out to the CHL to inquire about potentially adding a couple of players to the Olympic team.
“The junior teams don’t want to lose players. They might go to the world juniors. They don’t want to risk losing them for the Olympics, too,” Friedman said at the time.
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