To say Team Canada’s roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off had some surprises might be underselling it.
The superstars were all locks for the roster, with the likes of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby and Cale Makar being the players they were looking to build around, it’s also clear they prioritized getting defensive defencemen in the mix. That’s likely due to the goaltending — or lack thereof — in the Canadian ranks, with Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault being the trio selected to fill the crease.
Canada’s front office, head manned by Don Sweeney as general manager, with Jim Nill and Doug Armstrong as his assistants and Jon Cooper as head coach clearly went with the players they know. Look no further than the inclusion of St. Louis Blues’ Colton Parayko and Binnington — two fine players, but ones who aren’t at the top of their game, as of late. Or how about both Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli making the team to play in the bottom six? Hagel likely is well deserving given his hard-nosed demeanour, doubly so considering he’s racked up 10 goals and 29 points in 23 games, but Cirelli? I’m not sold.
These are just a few of the confounding decisions that the front office made, all the while leaving off two excellent players in Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard.
Take Hyman for example. While he hasn’t provided the offence this year like in recent years in Edmonton, he’s scored the fifth most goals among Canadian players over the last three seasons, behind Brayden Point, McDavid, Sam Reinhart and Nathan MacKinnon. And this season, among all the forwards named to the roster at five-on-five, Hyman ranks second in individual expected goals per hour, third in scoring chances per hour and first in high-danger scoring chances per hour.
“Hyman, to me, stands out in a big way,” said Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli on Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, when talking about players who didn’t make the Canadian roster. “I think there’s a ton of recency bias there for the poor start to the season that he’s had. When you look at the last number of years, he’s fifth among all Canadian-born players in goals.
It’s not just the goal scoring, it’s the connection he has with Connor McDavid. When you’re looking at a short tournament and trying to put that together, where you’re trying to find as much chemistry as you can possibly have, that stands out in a big way.
Plus, the fact he’s also, for my money, the best forechecking presence in the NHL. I call him a ‘press player’ and I don’t think there’s anyone better and more consistent at getting in and grinding and creating and winning battles, and I think you need that in a short tournament.”
When it comes to Bouchard, there’s another strong argument to make for him being on this roster, too. While you could find some reasoning in Canada’s idea that they don’t need another power-play quarterback given Cale Makar making the team, Bouchard’s defensive game has been vastly underappreciated. In fact, one could even make an argument he’s been the best defenceman in his own zone among the blueliners selected for the Canadian roster.
Comparing his five-on-five rates to the defencemen who made the team, Bouchard ranks first among them in terms of shot attempts against, shots against, expected goals against, scoring chances against, and high-danger scoring chances against. His actual goals-against-per-hour rate of 2.68 still sits ahead of Travis Sanheim, Parayko and Alex Pietrangelo.
Josh Morrissey and Shea Theodore are the two defencemen who don’t kill many penalties for their respective NHL teams, and for as good as Morrissey is, you can’t convince me Theodore is a better selection than Bouchard.
Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin echoed sentiments about Hyman and Bouchard’s snubs from the roster.
“I’m sorry – but the recency bias against the Edmonton Oilers jumped the shark here. Zach Hyman was an easy choice to be Canada’s net-front power play presence and carry his easy chemistry with McDavid onto the first line, and he doesn’t even make the team? Because he’s had a bad 20-game stretch after scoring 54 goals last season? That said, I understand the notion that players like Jarvis or Konecny can bring similar tenacity with more overall skill. I can live with it.
The most glaring omission is Evan Bouchard. Perhaps Canada figured he wouldn’t displace Makar on the top power play unit and wouldn’t be as useful playing shutdown minutes lower in the lineup. But the notion that Bouchard is a defensive liability is lazy and flat-out wrong. The tape can look ugly at times, as he’s prone to the big mistake, but the results tell us otherwise. Edmonton gets 59.82 percent of the scoring chances and 59.77 percent of the high-danger chances with him on the ice at 5-on-5 this season. He and Mattias Ekholm grade out as a top-two pair in the NHL at suppressing shots and shot attempts. Bouchard has even fared well when he’s not on the ice with Ekholm.
Oh, Bouchard’s play-driving stats are strong because he shares the ice with elite forwards? Whom do you think he’d be playing with on Canada? He’s an egregious snub.”
There’s still a chance Hyman or Bouchard could make the final roster. Each of the four teams will have until the day the tournament starts, February 12th, to add players in the wake of injuries.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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