With Hockey Canada’s Olympic orientation camp a week away, the debate continues about who should make the men’s squad.
One player who won’t even be among the 42 NHL players at the camp is Calgary Flames center Nazem Kadri, and he isn’t happy about it.
“I feel like I deserved a chance,” Kadri told The Athletic last Friday. “It would be an absolute dream come true to somehow crack that (Canadian) team. I've been a long shot before. I'm looking forward to giving myself an opportunity. But I understand I'm going to have to play well.”
Certainly, you can understand why Kadri would feel snubbed. The 34-year-old is coming off a career-high 35-goal season for the Flames, and his combination of skill and grit would no doubt serve Team Canada well. He's a Stanley Cup champion and would be good enough to make most of the other nations' Olympic teams.
However, it’s hard to find an opening for Kadri on Canada after they won the 4 Nations Face-Off last season.
All of those players were invited to camp, as well as some notable snubs from that squad, such as Mark Scheifele, John Tavares and Wyatt Johnston, who each had more than 70 points last season. That means hard decisions have to be made about who does and doesn’t make the cut for the next Olympic Games.
Kadri wasn’t the only top-six forward who wasn’t invited to this camp. Matt Duchene, Dylan Strome, Jordan Kyrou and Drake Batherson are other examples, and they had more points than Kadri’s 67 last season.
Who knows – when the Olympic rosters are decided around the New Year, there could be several injuries and either slow or impressive starts to the NHL season that affect Canada’s lineup choices. But the Canadians have more than enough options at their disposal.
We get where Kadri’s frustration is coming from. For someone who will be 35 in October, this will likely be his last shot at being at the Olympics — especially with 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini and 20-year-old Connor Bedard invited to orientation camp.
If the Canadians want a skilled, gritty player, they have Sam Bennett, Brandon Hagel, Travis Konecny and Brad Marchand who filled that role at the 4 Nations. If they want someone to be a two-way, bottom-six center, they have Anthony Cirelli, who also plays on the penalty kill.
Canada’s so deep on talent that there could be not only one but two all-snub teams that would be competitive.
Maybe Kadri will use this Olympic camp snub as motivation. Even then, it probably won’t be enough for him to play his way onto the Olympics roster.
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