Insider Trading: Auditions continue for passed over Canadian 4 Nations players

TSN’s Hockey Insiders discuss the aftermath of the 4 Nations roster announcements, the process of determining Canada’s leadership group, NHL officials eager to be part of the tournament, and how the Dallas Stars will look to replace Tyler Seguin in their lineup.

Auditions continue for Canadian players passed over for 4 Nations

Laura Diakun: Alright Insiders, the 4 Nations Face-off rosters have been announced, they’re in the books now. Obviously some disappointment for those players that didn’t make it but Chris, there’s some hope still for those that are not on these rosters?

Chris Johnston: Plenty of hope I’d say. I mean, it’s almost 10 weeks until this tournament begins and given the likelihood that someone gets injured, the audition period is still open for Canadian players. This is something that each nation at the tournament is wrestling with - the fact that there is the possibility of changes to come. But Canada is doing things differently. There were some courtesy calls given to players that didn’t make this roster but it’s not believed that any of those players were told formally, ‘you’re the next man up in case of injury’ and that’s because Canada is going to use this extra time to keep evaluating the performance of those at play, those like Nick Suzuki, Robert Thomas, Wyatt Johnston, John Tavares. Go down the list of anyone that missed out on this roster so far that would still like to be there. They don’t want to box themselves in and so there is still that time to perhaps still make the team and certainly no decisions have been made about who would replace any potential injury between now and Feb. 12.

Process over next few weeks to determine Team Canada leadership group

Diakun: There’s a lot of debate on who would make these rosters. Now the conversations switches to who will be the captain of Team Canada. Pierre, when can we expect an announcement about the leadership group?

Pierre LeBrun: Well you know, this is what Canadians do, they want to know what the next step is. It’s best on best Laura. There’s already been internal discussions within Team Canada of putting together that player leadership group. One of those decisions they made was, the roster just got announced, let’s let the roster breathe a bit and not rush into that leadership decision. Having said that, Jon Cooper has been tasked with spearheading that discussion for the leadership group and that’s what he’s going to do over the coming weeks here. At some point here there’s going to be a process that determines those players who have letters. Clearly, Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid are going to have letters, we’ll see which ones.

Now it’s another example, by the way, that Jon Cooper is in charge of this. More evidence of how influential he has been in this entire process for Team Canada. Don Sweeney and Doug Armstrong have leaned on him heavily throughout the roster selection process, they wanted him to know type of players, type of roles and honestly, and I think I speak for Dregs and CJ, in all the best on best hockey we’ve covered, I don’t know that we’ve seen a head coach with Team Canada have this kind of influence with on the team at this level.  

NHL officials eager to be part of the 4 Nations Face-off

Darren Dreger: Yeah I would agree with that. And look, because it’s an NHL event, we should expect that the officiating crews of course will be experienced NHL officials. Now the plan, from the National Hockey League perspective, is to build out that officiating team in the next couple weeks. What you should look for is how they put together their group that ultimately makes its way to the Stanley Cup Final and that best of seven. We’re looking at four NHL referees with experience, four NHL linemen with experience, and two standby officials, again with experience. Preferably Stanley Cup Final experience. And they should build that list of officials I would say in the next two weeks and then the National Hockey League will announce that group after that.

Stars will look within at first to replace Seguin

Diakun: Alright from 4 Nations Face-off to the Dallas Stars. Now you have to feel for Tyler Seguin. The 32-year-old was off to a great start this season but has undergone hip surgery and now will be on the shelf for the next four to six months. Pierre, are the Stars going to be looking to fill the void via trade perhaps?

LeBrun: Well first of all by the way, he had that surgery on Thursday and one of the things that the Stars wanted to figure out is once they talked to doctors again about his prognosis post-surgery to get an even clearer idea of his timetable. The team announced four to six months but they want to get a more precise idea because they want to know basically is there any chance he can play before the end of the regular season and obviously if the answer is no, that means they have $9.8 million, his cap hit, to play with at the trade deadline and that is gigantic. For now, what Jim Nill has said, is they want to look internally to try and fill the void. Logan Stankoven for example is the one that took Seguin’s spot in their last game on the line with [Matt] Duchene and [Mason] Marchment, which has been outstanding for the Dallas Stars this year. Rookie Mavrik Bourque, who’s on the fourth line, he’ll probably get a bigger opportunity as time goes on. But as we flip the page to the second half of the year, I can see the Stars trying to use that money. Keep an eye on Brock Nelson, pending UFA for the New York Islanders. Going to be a lot of interest in that guy, including from the Minnesota Wild by the way. I think Minnesota is keeping an eye on Brock Nelson as well. The thing is, the Islanders are back in a playoff chase, he’s not going to be available and GM Lou Lamiorello doesn’t always trade his UFAs anyway. So it’s not clear if Brock Nelson would even be on the move but he would be a name of note.

Preliminary contract talks between Columbus and Mathieu Olivier

Dreger: Well speaking of pending unrestricted free agents guys and speaking of a name of note is Mathieu Olivier with the Columbus Blue Jackets. I mean arguably he is the top fighter in the National Hockey League and he does other things, he’s got seven goals so he can provide some offence as well. There’s low level scuttlebutt around him because he’s on an expiring contract but know this, Don Waddell and the Columbus Blue Jackets recognize the valuable asset that they have in Olivier. They don’t want him going anywhere, so there shouldn’t be any trade speculation around this and I know that Waddell and Olivier’s agent Philippe Lecavalier have already engaged in preliminary contract extension talks.

Diakun: Alright that does it for this edition of Insider Trading. Your Insiders again, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and last but not least, Darren Dreger.