{"id":455349,"date":"2026-02-12T07:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T07:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455349\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T07:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T07:09:15","slug":"now-even-toronto-commentators-wish-hyman-and-bouchard-were-on-team-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455349\/","title":{"rendered":"Now even Toronto commentators wish Hyman and Bouchard were on Team Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

This in from several sports commentators, the wish that Team Canada had added Edmonton Oilers<\/a> d-men Evan Bouchard and Zach Hyman to the Olympic roster, as it would bolster Connor McDavid<\/a> and improve an area of much concern for the team, the ability of its defenders to move the puck.<\/p>\n

First up is former NHL GM Craig Button speaking on the Overdrive podcast in Toronto.<\/p>\n

Said Button: \u201cTo me, when they didn\u2019t name Zach Hyman, I think it was a big mistake, because I think the most important thing was to get Connor McDavid<\/a> into a state where he could be as comfortable as possible, as confident as possible. And I think they took that away from him by not naming Hyman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Button continued: \u201cI think that Connor McDavid, he knows what the responsibility is, he knows what the demands are, and we know how badly he wants to win. So I think that when you were selecting the team, you had to be having that in mind. And then the opportunity opened (with late injuries to Team Canada picks Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli), and they didn\u2019t take it. And I think it\u2019s a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

On defence, Button said he has no doubt that top d-man Cale Makar will play well, but he said after Makar there\u2019s a drop off to Josh Morrissey, Devon Toews and Shea Theodore, then another significant drop off after that. \u201cYou can\u2019t play those guys all of them 30 minutes each. They\u2019re going to need some support from Parayko, Harley, Doughty, Sanheim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a significant drop then to your next four. And what does it look like?\u2026 If those net four defence \u2014 after the top four we\u2019ve named (Makar, Toews, Theodore, Morrissey) can\u2019t carry some significant play, how vulnerable are you in having to play them and not playing Makar more? That\u2019s where the challenge comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up is former NHLer Nick Kypreos of the Real Kyper & Bourne show in Toronto, who wondered after Makar who is the next best Canadian d-man when it comes to bringing pace to the Canadian team. His co-host Justin Bourne suggested Theodore and Morrissey, then asked: \u201cDo you have concerns that they don\u2019t have enough of that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do,\u201d Kypreos said. \u201cYeah, now I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what now would change that?\u201d Bourne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe your buddy on the island (hot shot rookie Matthew Schaeffer) or (Evan) Bouchard\u2026 Just watching how talented they were offensively and able to bring the pucks up and push really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. blueline is bolstered because Boston\u2019s Charlie McAvoy has reached another level of play, Kypreos said, giving the USA a slight edge on defence over Team Canada, which is filled with more defensive d-men, as team GM Doug Armstrong wanted to something of a \u201ccar wash\u201d defence on Team Canada, with opposing attackers having to go through long sticks and long limbs to get to the Canadian net.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, you\u2019re going to win a gold medal with a car wash, blue line led by Pareko?\u201d Kypreos asked, sounding unconvinced. \u201cThat\u2019s the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Oilers Now, Chris Pronger, the former Norris Trophy winner and double Team Canada Olympic gold medallist, noted that many of the players picked have not had their best years this season, including Doughty, Parayko, and Sanheim.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at playmaking on the back end, they get any injuries to any of the Top 4, Morrissey, Theodore, Toews and Makar, and you never know what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

My take<\/p>\n

1. I\u2019ve pushed all year for Hyman and for Bouchard to be on Team Canada, but mainly that push came from Edmonton commentators like me, not from Ontario guys. This is a welcome change, but it comes too late to have any impact on the team.<\/p>\n

The main argument against Bouchard is he gives away the puck too much and makes too many defensive gaffes, but in the playoffs, he\u2019s proven he can cut down on such mistakes and play solid defence against tough competition under severe pressure.<\/p>\n

The knock on Bouchard was always brought up in isolation, I\u2019ll suggest, the argument being that because he wasn\u2019t a great player on defence, he wasn\u2019t worthy of Team Canada. But there is no perfect player. Every player has pros and cons to his game. And if you compare Bouchard to the players who did make it \u2014 as is now happening as people think harder about Team Canada\u2019s roster and which players were, in fact, chosen \u2014 it\u2019s clear Bouchard would have filled a real need for puck-moving on this team, something many of the d-men chosen are comparatively poor at doing.<\/p>\n

2. Bouchard was the NHL\u2019s top scoring d-man this year and the top scoring d-man two years running in the playoffs. Hyman is one of the rare players who has come into Edmonton and found amazing chemistry on a line with Connor McDavid. That should have had them on this team.<\/p>\n

3. We\u2019ve just witnessed the train wreck of the Team Canada women\u2019s team at the Olympics, which went with players known to management, grinder-type vets with a past record of success, as opposed to bringing on board the fastest and most skilled Canadian players possible.<\/p>\n

Our women\u2019s team got obliterated by Team USA in the first round, in large part due to this incompetent roster selection process.<\/p>\n

One hopes we won\u2019t see the same story play out with our men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

Of course, our men\u2019s team has four of the greatest hockey player in NHL history in Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, McDavid and Makar, so it\u2019s unlikely any other team will swamp them. But the USA team has the talent to beat this Team Canada squad. Canada barely beat the USA at the Four Nations tournament, and this American team looks better than that 2025 edition.<\/p>\n

As for Canada, as Pronger notes, we\u2019ve got a lot of older, slower d-men who haven\u2019t played that well this year.<\/p>\n

4. Maybe Team Canada will be better without players like Bouchard and Hyman. But I doubt it. It still may be good enough to win, given the astonishing talent upfront, but I can\u2019t see how the job will be easier with McDavid\u2019s favourite wingman in Hyman, and Canada\u2019s second best attacking d-man in Bouchard.<\/p>\n

At the Cult of Hockey<\/p>\n

Edmonton Oilers focus on wrong trade target \u2014 and guilty of wishful thinking about fixing defence<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This in from several sports commentators, the wish that Team Canada had added Edmonton Oilers d-men Evan Bouchard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[397,154,1332,1116,19,2154,1794,155,6089,1543,198,146,5300,425,5,2081,145,517,4,2783,24,8226,27392,9,768,3037,66,1585],"class_list":{"0":"post-455349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-anthony-cirelli","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-brayden-point","11":"tag-cale-makar","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-charlie-mcavoy","14":"tag-chris-pronger","15":"tag-connor-mcdavid","16":"tag-craig-button","17":"tag-devon-toews","18":"tag-edmonton","19":"tag-edmonton-oilers","20":"tag-edmontonoilers","21":"tag-evan-bouchard","22":"tag-hockey","23":"tag-josh-morrissey","24":"tag-los-angeles-kings","25":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","26":"tag-nhl","27":"tag-nick-kypreos","28":"tag-oilers","29":"tag-parayko","30":"tag-sanheim","31":"tag-shea-theodore","32":"tag-sidney-crosby","33":"tag-team-canada","34":"tag-toronto","35":"tag-zach-hyman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116056408925872049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455349","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=455349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}