Carolina Hurricanes Coach Peters’ Team Canada Roster is Developing

One week ago Carolina Hurricanes Bill Peters was named Head Coach of Team Canada for the upcoming IIHF World Championships beginning May 6th. Now that the NHL season is over his roster is starting to come together.

The biggest challenge with being a head coach for the early-summer World Championships is that the NHL Playoffs are just starting, and some of the world’s best players are still busy.

Unlike the World Cup teams rosters in September, which will be chock-filled with every healthy NHL All-Star, Coach Peters and the Team Canada management team will have some tough and interesting choices to make after the top-tier players are named.

After being selected by Mike Babcock to be an assistant coach for the World Cup Canadian Team in September, and showing that he can get the most out of a team this season with the Canes, Peters has obviously earned the chance to guide Canada in this IIHF tournament. Canada is hoping that experience will help put a strong team on the ice, and bring home another international gold medal.

Related Story: Hurricanes Bench Boss named Team Canada Coach

Along with the Team Canada management team of General Managers George McPhee (New York Islanders), Brad Treliving (Calgary Flames) and senior advisor Doug Armstrong (St. Louis Blues), Peters has sent out an initial round of player invitations, and the roster should be coming into focus very soon.

For Team U.S.A Head Coach John Hynes (New Jersey Devil’s bench boss) his roster has already taken a talent hit. Yesterday Buffalo Sabres rookie star Jack Eichel bowed out of playing in Russia.

(Editor’s note: It’s interesting he mentioned coming back next season. Will he also skip the World Cup in September?)

Team Canada, on the other hand, has already heard from some of the players they really wanted on the roster.

Connor McDavid will represent Canada for the third time in his very young career, after winning gold in the 2013 IIHF U-18 World Championships and the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championships.

“There wasn’t much to play for late in the season but I’m definitely excited to play for a championship whether that’s in the worlds or the World Cup (playing for Team North America in September). It’ll be fun,” McDavid said. – courtesy Edmonton Journal

This will be Taylor Hall’s third world championship appearance and second in a row as he was on the gold medal-winning 2015 team in Switzerland. He scored 26 goals and 64 points in 81 games this season with the Oilers.

Cam Talbot will represent Canada for the first time at the International level. He finished the season with a 2.55 average and .917 save percentage. He struggled in November, but had a 2.20 goal average since just before Christmas.

In other Canada roster news, barring any last minute changes, Ottawa Senators Cody Ceci and Mark Stone are expected to get the call, according to the Ottawa Citizen-Times.

“It would be very exciting for me, so I hope that it works out,” Ceci said. “They’ve reached out to me, but nothing is 100 per cent yet. We’ll just have to wait and see when the team is officially announced.”

Stone, who’s been sidelined since receiving one of the season’s biggest hits from Winnipeg’s Dustin Byfuglien on March 30, will play if his health and the doctors permit it.

Senators coach Dave Cameron is an assistant for Team Canada.

Buffalo Sabre Ryan O’Reilly will be joining the Canadian roster for a second time, according to The Buffalo News. “I’ll be going over to Russia to play,” O’Reilly said. “It’ll be great. Last year was an awesome experience to win. Going back again, it’s always a great time. Team Canada is great with it. They put on a great experience for us.”

And finally, Elliotte Friedman and Cassie Campbell reported that Vancouver Canucks hard-working, and undrafted defenseman Chris Tanev will make his first-ever appearance for the Canadian National Team.

He finished his 2015-16 season with four goals and 18 points for a nice 69-game year with the Canucks, and enough to get an invite to Russia.

Team Canada did receive some bad news today as it was reported that P.K. Subban won’t be healthy enough to play in Russia.

Two other disappointing, but understandable absences were also announced by the Edmonton Oilers. Jordan Eberle won’t be going to Russia to defend his gold medal because of family commitments. His sister is having a baby and he has a wedding to attend. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will also miss the World Championships as he rehabs a broken hand.

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All of this is just the start of what could become a very strong Team Canada. Some of the other players who are missing the NHL post-season include T.J. Brodie, Mark Giordano, Matt Duchene, MacKinnon, Mark Scheifele and Sean Monahan. Not really bad choices at all if you’re being honest, right?

Let us hear who you think Coach Peters and the management team should pick to fill out the roster. You can find us on Twitter and Facebook.