Bad enough Subban off World Cup roster, but Galchenyuk?
Subban missing from roster, too
They filled in the rosters for the World Cup of Hockey Friday and, as Captain Renault said in Casablanca, “I was shocked, shocked” to discover some of the names who weren’t selected.
The big question for many Canadiens fans was whether defenceman P.K. Subban would be subjected to more humiliation from Mike Babcock, the best coach in the world with only one Stanley Cup and a last-place finish in the NHL to his name.
Subban didn’t fit into Babcock’s system at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi and was limited to one token appearance. It’s probably just as well that he wasn’t added to the World Cup, slated for Sept. 17 to Oct. 1 in Toronto, because now he can focus his energy on beating up on Babcock’s Maple Leafs when they meet in the regular season.
But the most egregious slight directed at a Canadiens player is the absence of Alex Galchenyuk from Team North America, an amalgamation of U.S. and Canadian players under the age of 24.
It appears that Galchenyuk lost out to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jonathan Drouin when GM Peter Chiarelli filled in his roster. With Edmonton GM Chiarelli at the helm, Nugent-Hopkins is understandable because he plays for the Oilers. He was injured for a large chunk of the past season and finished with 34 points in 55 games.
Drouin did have a strong playoff run with Tampa Bay, but he was suspended for a good part of the season after refusing an assignment to the AHL and had 10 points in 21 games.
Galchenyuk had 30 goals and 56 points and is far and away the most productive player from the draft class of 2012. The only players on the Team North America roster with more points last season were Johnny Gaudreau (78), Sean Monahan (63) and Mark Scheifele (61). Gaudreau matched Galchenyuk’s 30 goals.
The snub extended to the Toronto-centric Sportsnet panel, which didn’t mention Galchenyuk but questioned the exclusion of Max Domi.
Denmark’s Lars Eller also got the cold shoulder. He was left off Team Europe, another artificial creation made up of European players who aren’t Russians, Czechs, Finns or Swedes.
Defenceman Alexei Emelin was added to the Russian squad, which has some controversy of its own.
The Russians also added former Los Angeles Kings defenceman Slava Voynov even though NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly believes Voynov is not eligible because of some legal problems when he was in L.A. Voynov was charged with spousal abuse in 2014 and pleaded no contest to a reduced charge the following summer. He voluntarily left the U.S. one step ahead of deportation order.
The Russians did not add Alexander Radulov or Ilya Kovalchuk, two KHL players with experience in the NHL. Neither player distinguished himself at the Sochi Olympics.
While Drouin’s playoff performance helped him, the same wasn’t true for Phil Kessel, who has been outstanding for Pittsburgh. He was left off Team USA.
Jaromir Jagr has signed for another season in Florida, but he’s sticking to his retirement from international play and he won’t be joining his longtime friend Tomas Plekanec on the Czech team.
Plekanec, Markov and Emelin will be joined Max Pacioretty (Team USA) and Carey Price (Team Canada) in Toronto.