{"id":451235,"date":"2026-02-08T14:38:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/451235\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T14:38:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T14:38:41","slug":"brayden-points-olympic-status-for-canada-coming-down-to-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/451235\/","title":{"rendered":"Brayden Point’s Olympic status for Canada coming down to wire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brayden Point hasn’t played a game for the Tampa Bay Lightning since suffering a knee injury<\/a> against the Philadelphia Flyers on Jan. 12. Although the star forward has been ruled out until the Olympic break, he is still a possibility to play for Team Canada in Italy \u2014 but the clock is ticking.<\/p>\n

As The Athletic’s Chris Johnston and Pierre LeBrun reported, a decision on Point’s availability could be made as soon<\/a> as Thursday, with the Canadian roster set to travel to Milan on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeam Canada has no plans to bring an extra player to Milan as an injury standby, so Brayden Point’s Olympic status will need to be determined by this weekend,\u201d Johnston wrote. \u201cPoint has spent a lot of time on the ice since suffering a knee injury and is expected to skate again in Tampa today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong also provided a vote of confidence<\/a> that Point would be healthy enough to join the squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to have a decision before people have to get on planes, which is Saturday,\u201d Armstrong told The Athletic. \u201cNow, we can buy extra time. I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s going to be a lot of extra information between Saturday and Tuesday. That\u2019s our initial plan, but it\u2019s fluid.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, he wants to play and we want him to play. There\u2019s no rush to this right now, so we\u2019re not rushing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadians will already be without Point’s teammate Anthony Cirelli<\/a>, who was injured in the 2026 Stadium Series against the Boston Bruins and was replaced by Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett.<\/p>\n

There’s \u2018optimism’ Brayden Point will play for Canada<\/p>\n

As Johnston and LeBrun reported on Thursday, the most likely scenario is that Point will join Team Canada for the flight to Milan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere also seems to be optimism around Point\u2019s recovery. Lightning GM Julien BriseBois \u2014 an assistant GM on Armstrong\u2019s Team Canada staff \u2014 watched closely Thursday morning with a Tampa trainer while Point skated at Benchmark International Arena,\u201d wrote the pair.<\/p>\n

Lightning and Team Canada head coach Jon Cooper said that a decision could be made on Thursday. Panthers forward Brad Marchand, who has also been battling an injury as of late, will be an option for the country later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to him, and he said he\u2019s ready to go for us,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cWe rely on the players\u2019 honesty. I have no question in my mind that they\u2019ll do what\u2019s best for the team. That\u2019s what makes these guys so special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Canada boasts a stacked roster whether or not Point can play, but he is undoubtedly a key piece and one of the team’s more important players at both ends of the rink.<\/p>\n

Point has managed 11 goals and 30 points in 37 games in 2025-26, helping the Lightning to an Eastern Conference-best 36-14-4 record.<\/p>\n

Canada plays its first game of the 2026 Winter Olympics against Czechia on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brayden Point hasn’t played a game for the Tampa Bay Lightning since suffering a knee injury against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[1332,5,189,4,7901,2602,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":{"0":"post-451235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-brayden-point","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-lightning","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nhl-injury","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-tampa-bay","15":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","16":"tag-tampabay","17":"tag-tampabaylightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116035525264450155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451235","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=451235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}