Now that he's done firing a head coach who had a .715 winning percentage for him, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney can probably turn more of his attention to Team Canada. Sweeney is Canada's GM for the upcoming 4 Nations Cup event in February and has a ton of talent to choose from, particularly up front.
St. Louis Blues' GM Doug Armstrong is also part of Canada's management team and told NHL.com yesterday things are a little different in goal than they've been in the past.
"Canada hasn't had decisions for a number of years, whether you go back to Patrick (Roy), and you had (Ed) Belfour, you've had (Martin) Brodeur, (Roberto) Luongo and Carey Price," Armstrong told NHL.com's Adam Kimelman. "There was maybe two competitions for a No. 1 job with two of maybe the top four or five in the world. It's a little bit different right now."
The names being bandied about right now are excellent, but don't carry the superstar label like the Canadian goalies of the past. The 4 Nations list includes Mackenzie Blackwood, Sam Montembeault, Darcy Kuemper, Adin Hill, Jordan Binnington, Logan Thompson, and Stuart Skinner.
But you've also got two former Ottawa Senators as possibilities: Cam Talbot and Joey Daccord.
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Talbot now plays for the Detroit Red Wings and stands 10th in the NHL with a .920 save percentage. Daccord is even better for Seattle at .923 (seventh) with a 9-3-1 record. And he's one of the best puckhandling goalies the game has ever seen.
Daccord isn't a name we've heard much in the expert predictions out there, but The Hockey News' Ken Campbell spoke with Jim Nill, who's also on the Canadian management team, and reports that Nill said, "Absolutely, Joey Daccord is in the mix."
Daccord was born in the United States, which is why he sometimes gets missed as a Canadian option. But his Dad is from Canada, and his mom hails from Switzerland, so he's a triple threat who's eligible to play for any of those countries. The Swiss aren't invited to this event, of course, but he's good to go for either of the other two if he's selected.
The Sens lost Daccord for nothing after leaving him unprotected in the 2021 Seattle expansion draft, instead protecting Filip Gustavsson. In 2022, they traded Gustavsson straight up for Talbot. And then in 2023, let Talbot walk in free agency, getting nothing. Now all three are on national team radars for February's tourney.
With Ottawa tagged by their fan base as a goalie graveyard, it would be haunting for them to see one of these former Senators show up in a best-on-best tournament, much less three of them.
Each country's 23-man roster will be unveiled on Dec. 4. The tournament will run Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.
