OLYMPIC INSIGHT
Fabian Joseph thinks it’s a good opportunity for non-NHL players.
With the recent announcement NHL players won’t be participating in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, former Olympian Fabian Joseph believes it’s a good opportunity for amateurs or young pros to take centre stage once more.
The Sydney native played for Canada at both the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France, and captained the 1994 team in Lillehammer, Norway. He took home two silver medals.
“I kind of had mixed feelings,” said Joseph, 51, the head coach of the Woodstock Slammers junior ‘A’ team. “Obviously, you want to see the best players in the world compete at the Olympic Games like other sports, but selfishly, I look back at my two experiences at the ‘92 and ‘94 Olympics and what it did for my career and my development not only as a player, but as a person.”
The 1994 Games was the last prior to the NHL’s full participation in men’s hockey in Nagano, Japan, in 1998. The NHL players have made up most of the team’s rosters since, including Canada’s 2014 gold medal victory in Sochi, Russia.
Although NHLers have made up the bulk of the rosters for the past five Winter Games, the Canadian team had a handful of players who had either played in the NHL or were on their way to the pros when Joseph played. The 1992 Canadian roster included the likes of Eric Lindros, Sean Burke, Joe Juneau, Dave Tippett and Dave Hannan. The 1994 squad featured Paul Kariya, Corey Hirsch, Manny Legace, Greg Johnson, Brian Savage and Czech-born Petr Nedved, who was granted Canadian citizenship at the time.
“Back then, we had the ongoing national team based out of Calgary and we basically trained
there together leading up to the Olympics and represented Canada around the world in different international tournaments and exhibition series,” said Joseph. “It was a great opportunity for guys who were in between playing junior hockey and turning pro to develop not only as a player, but see the world. It’s an education in itself.”
Since the next Olympics are less than a year away, Joseph believes there won’t be a national team program like when he played, and expects the 2018 team rosters will be filled with pros playing in Europe or some top American Hockey League players. But to prepare for the
2022 Olympics in Beijing, China, he feels that dedicated national team program could make a comeback.
“It’s was unbelievable because you got to learn the international game,” he said. “Not only the players that went on to the NHL, but the coaches like Dave King and Tom Renney. The coaching was top notch as well. Just the development itself and representing your country at different tournaments across the world…it was a great honour. I think there were 11 different countries we competed in.”