{"id":444489,"date":"2026-02-04T03:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T03:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/444489\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T03:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T03:46:18","slug":"sam-bennett-to-replace-injured-anthony-cirelli-on-team-canada-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/444489\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Bennett to replace injured Anthony Cirelli on Team Canada roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sam<\/p>\n

Sam Bennett is getting another chance to represent Canada in international play. Bob DeChiara \/ Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Feb. 3, 2026Updated 10:17 pm EST<\/p>\n

Sam Bennett will replace the injured Anthony Cirelli on Team Canada\u2019s roster for the upcoming Milan Cortina Olympics.<\/p>\n

The Florida Panthers center was one of the more surprising omissions from the original 25-man roster named in late December after helping Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament last year. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in June after leading the Panthers to a second straight Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

Cirelli was forced to withdraw from the Olympic tournament after sustaining an upper-body injury while playing for the Tampa Bay Lightning in Sunday\u2019s Stadium Series outdoor game against the Boston Bruins.<\/p>\n

Like Bennett, he\u2019s a two-time Cup winner who was part of the 4 Nations victory.<\/p>\n

This is the first injury replacement for Team Canada, which opens the Olympic tournament against Czechia next Thursday.<\/p>\n

Bennett is in the midst of his most productive NHL season \u2014 with 19 goals and 42 points through 55 games \u2014 but will be deployed in a bottom-six role for Canada. His best attributes are a competitive nature and a willingness to engage opponents physically.<\/p>\n

That was on full display at the 4 Nations tournament, where he fought Brady Tkachuk as part of the memorable three fights in nine seconds<\/a> Canada and the U.S. engaged in to open their preliminary round game. The Olympics are played under IIHF rules, which ban fighting. However, Bennett also scored the goal in the 4 Nations championship game that helped Canada force overtime.<\/p>\n

When he was left off the initial Olympic roster, Bennett said he was extremely disappointed that he didn\u2019t do more to prove to decision-makers that he could help them win an Olympic gold. He also expressed gratitude for his 4 Nations experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was probably the proudest moment of my career getting to put on that (Team Canada) jersey,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to be forever grateful for that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Feb 4, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Bennett is getting another chance to represent Canada in international play. Bob DeChiara \/ Imagn Images Feb.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,54125,4,2602],"class_list":{"0":"post-444489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116010313079251173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}