Travis Sanheim never expected to become an Olympian.
Growing up in Elkhorn, Man., Sanheim was purely focused on just reaching the National Hockey League and solidifying a role for himself.
The 6-foot-4 left-shot defenceman has been one of the Philadelphia Flyers’ most consistent blueliners this season, contributing five goals and 19 points in 41 games with a plus-7 rating and averaging a career-high 24:32 of ice time.
His play has solidified his place on Canada’s Olympic roster as he gets set to represent his country on international hockey’s biggest stage.
“It’s something I never really thought I’d ever really be a part of,” Sanheim told TSN1050’s First Up on Wednesday. “Growing up in a small town in Manitoba, I think to make the NHL was something that didn’t seem realistic for me. Then I got there and established myself, but I didn’t really see myself as an Olympic athlete.”
The 29-year-old blueliner put himself on the Olympic radar by continually improving as a member of the Flyers.
Drafted 17th overall in 2014, Sanheim has seen his playing time go from 15:35 during his rookie season in 2017-18 to 24:30 last season.
He recorded eight goals and 40 points in 82 games last year with a minus-6 rating and his play helped him make Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off winning squad.
“I just tried to work on my game and get better and was fortunate to play at the 4 Nations last year,” said Sanheim. “Getting a taste of playing best-on-best was a great experience and I can’t wait for the Olympics after experiencing that.
“Playing for an Olympic medal is going to mean so much to me and I’m going to have the support of my community and family. I just can’t wait to get over there.”
Sanheim is one of 19 players returning to Team Canada from the 4 Nations roster. Also returning is a coaching staff that is headed by Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper.
He believes that 4 Nations experience will only help the chemistry with his teammates and the team will have a better grasp on what the coaching staff wants out of them.
“[By] winning together and having the tournament last season, we built familiarity with each other, which will make things a bit easier,” said Sanheim. “It’ll help with the coaching staff as well because we understand what they’re looking for from a systems standpoint.
“[Now] we’re just going out and playing, trying to do it all over again.”
Sanheim’s continued improvement has coincided with the Flyers’ improvement in the NHL standings.
Philadelphia sits in third place in the Metropolitan Division headed into Wednesday’s action with a 22-12-7 record. That is a 12-point improvement at this time last year after 41 games.
Sanheim credits new head coach Rick Tocchet as a key component to their success this season with the systems he implemented in training camp.
“We saw right away the changes that [Tocchet] was making would be good ones,” said Sanheim. “It was a lot of learning early on in training camp with a lot of system changes that a lot of us weren’t familiar with. We were just trying to get better and implement them as fast as we could.”
The rest of the Eastern Conference has also taken a step forward. Ten of the top 16 teams in the NHL are in the East, indicating that there is an extreme amount of parity in the conference.
Sanheim knows that the Flyers can’t be satisfied with their current success with the rest of the conference applying pressure.
“You can be happy with where your situation 1767852916 and then you lose a couple and all of a sudden you move quite far down the list,” said Sanheim. “I think it’s a good thing, it makes every night to be an exciting matchup and a challenge, which is good for the league. Any team can beat any other team on any given night.”