Canada's Olympic men's ice hockey roster announced early

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The official Olympic announcement is due on Tuesday, but the IIHF apparently couldn’t wait to get the news out a day early by tweeting out the 25-man roster in a now-deleted tweet.

Eric Staal reportedly headlines the mixed group of players, which includes former NHLers (Daniel Winnik, David Desharnais and Jason Demers), career minor-leaguers (Adam Tambellini), and at least two future stars that we just saw at last month’s world juniors (2021 No. 1 overall pick Owen Power and No. 3 pick Mason McTavish).

Staal, who won gold at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, is likely to wear the ‘C’ as team captain. The 37-year-old most recently played in the NHL in July, when he helped the Montreal Canadiens reach the Stanley Cup final. Since then, the free agent forward has been working out in Minnesota, while keeping his NHL options open.

“When the NHL and NHLPA decided they wouldn’t be participating at the Olympics, there was communication (from Staal) to let those people know that he would be interested — and it was a mutual interest,” Staal’s agent, Rick Curran, told Postmedia earlier this month, adding that the Olympics could be a stepping stone to signing an NHL contract in time for the playoffs.

“Eric wants to make sure that if an opportunity comes around, he’s able to jump in and it wouldn’t take him long to get ready.”

Though Staal is the biggest name among the bunch, he is not the only player with Olympic experience.

Eric O’Dell, who is currently playing for Moscow Dynamo in the KHL, was also part of the team that won bronze at the 2018 Olympics, where he scored one goal and has two points in six games.

Edward Pasquale (Yaroslavl Lokomotiv of the KHL) and Matt Tomkins (Frolunda in Sweden) are expected to battle it out for the starting goaltending job. But don’t be surprised if 20-year-old Devon Levi, who represented Canada at last year’s world juniors, steals the net.

A six-man alternate group also will be named on Tuesday, which reportedly will include Michigan Wolverines forward Kent Johnson, who was the fifth-overall pick in 2021.

FORWARDS

Daniel Carr

Adam Cracknell

David Desharnais

Landon Ferraro

Josh Ho-Sang

Corban Knight

Jack McBain

Mason McTavish

Eric O’Dell

Eric Staal

Ben Street

Adam Tambellini

Jordan Weal

Daniel Winnik

DEFENCE

Mark Barberio

Jason Demers

Brandon Gormley

Alex Grant

Maxim Noreau

Owen Power

Mat Robinson

Tyler Wotherspoon

GOALIES

Devon Levi

Edward Pasquale

Matt Tomkins

mtraikos@postmedia.com

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