Fun facts as Canada prepares for Norway
Team Canada’s star-studded lineup takes to the ice Thursday against Norway in its first game at the Sochi Olympics.
Maybe you know everything about this group anointed by Steve Yzerman to defend the gold Canada won four years ago at Rogers Arena. Then again, maybe you’ve had other matters to occupy your time and haven’t yet done a forensic analysis of the roster. So who’s old? Who’s not? Who’s highest paid? Who’s getting squat? (Relatively speaking, of course.)
Here are a few fun facts to help prime you for the Norway game and what lies beyond for Team Canada, edition 2014:
NO HANDOUTS NEEDED
Among the 25 players on the roster, defenceman P.K. Subban ranks 25th in salary cap hit. The Montreal Canadiens stalwart and reigning Norris Trophy winner is on the books for $2.875 million this season, almost $700,000 less than forward Matt Duchene of the Colorado Avalanche.
But don’t feel sorry for P.K. His actual pay for 2013-14 is $3.75 million, due to his back-end loaded deal.
Duchene, meanwhile, is 24th in salary-cap hit at $3.5 million. But don’t feel sorry for him either. His actual pay is $3.75, and he’s already signed a five-year extension that will see him make $6 million per season beginning in 2014-15. Subban still has to negotiate his next contract, and it’s safe to say it will be a whopper.
THE PUCKS STOP HERE
Yzerman and his management team are banking on the trio of Roberto Luongo, Carey Price and Mike Smith to be money in Sochi. Among the three, Luongo can buy the most sushi based on his real salary of $6.714 million, even though he has the lowest cap hit at $5.33 (Luongo’s backdiving deal is now subject to the new CBA’s cap-recapture penalty, but we digress). The Habs’ Price is right at $6.5 million in actual money and a cap hit of $5.75, while Smith, the Coyote, isn’t baying at the moon with $4 schmill in real dollars and a cap hit of $5.67 million.
SO MUCH FOR THE ’70S
As we march along in the new millennium, the psychedelic 1970s are being left in the dust and so, too, are players born in that decade. Only four members of the 25-man squad were born during the 10-year period that spawned Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC.
In any case, Martin St. Louis is the elder statesman at 38 years young, followed by Luongo, Patrick Marleau and Chris Kunitz, all of them 34.
The babies on the squad? Duchene and John Tavares, both at 23. Duchene is the only player born in 1991 (Jan. 16).