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Greg Wyshynski, ESPNDec 5, 2024, 12:59 PM ET
- Greg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.
Team Canada general manager Don Sweeney indicated that Chicago Blackhawks star Connor Bedard is still in consideration for the 2026 Winter Olympics despite being snubbed from their NHL 4 Nations Face-Off roster this week.
Bedard, 19, was the NHL rookie of the year last season. He had dominating performances for Canada at the 2023 world juniors (23 points in 7 games) and the 2024 IIHF world championships (5 goals in 10 games). That sparked speculation that Bedard would make the roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off, a four-team exhibition tournament that’s replacing the NHL All-Star Game this season, to better prepare him for the 2026 Olympic tournament in Italy.
But Bedard has struggled in his second NHL season, with 5 goals in 26 games after scoring 22 goals in 68 games as a rookie. He has 19 points for the Blackhawks as well.
Sweeney, who is the general manager of the Boston Bruins, said that Bedard is part of “the next wave of great players” for Canada but one who needs to gain experience before making the leap to the national team.
“It’s his second time around the league. There’s some challenges associated with that. He’s working through that, in a situation where he gets all the attention possible from the best players that he’s playing against each and every night,” said Sweeney. “So I think he’s living and breathing it right now and it’s only going to help him to continue to build his resume and we’re excited about that.”
Sweeney, who will be the assistant to GM Doug Armstrong for the Canadian men’s hockey Olympic team, and Team Canada coach Jon Cooper both expected Bedard would push for a roster spot in 2026.
They also said the 4 Nations Face-Off roster, which features just one player born after 1998, was built for this tournament rather than as a test run for the 2026 roster.
“We built this team to win the 4 Nations. The Olympics is still a year away. Are there players that are going to develop and take strides in that time? There’s no question,” said Cooper, the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning. “Especially some of these younger players where your development continues. That’s just going to make decisions tougher.”
Sweeney said that’s why Team Canada had a “wider lens” in looking at players like Bedard who might not be ready for the 4 Nations tournament but could make the cut in 2026.
“We wanted to identify players that are going to project out down the road. Players that might not necessarily be ready to push somebody out of a job that we felt had earned it at this point,” he said. “We’re going to have to continue to have those [players] stack up on top of each other in the next year and a half and make a really hard decision on several emerging players. We’re incredibly excited about them, but we couldn’t lose sight of the fact that we were building a team for February.”
It’s not unprecedented for Canada to leave a young phenom off its national team roster. Sidney Crosby was left off the Canadian Olympic team in 2006 when he was 18 years old, despite playing at a point-per-game pace as a rookie. Steven Stamkos didn’t make the 2010 Olympic team despite scoring 51 goals as a 19-year-old in his second NHL season.
Meanwhile, the player who finished second to Bedard in the rookie race last season — 22-year-old Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber — made the cut for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
