{"id":1250,"date":"2025-11-12T05:45:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T05:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/team-canada-gm-comments-on-connor-bedard-macklin-celebrinis-chances\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T05:45:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T05:45:57","slug":"team-canada-gm-comments-on-connor-bedard-macklin-celebrinis-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2.watchtowatch.top\/?p=1250","title":{"rendered":"Team Canada GM comments on Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini\u2019s chances"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Team<\/p>\n

Team Canada\u2019s hockey roster for the Olympics is one of the toughest lists to crack in all of sports. The NHL has been depriving the world of seeing the best-on-best hockey at the Olympics since 2018, but the world\u2019s best will all converge in Italy in February for a battle for world supremacy. If\u00a0last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off was any indication, it should be a must-watch.\u00a0Two players, Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini, are hoping\u00a0they\u2019ll be part of the action this time around after missing out last year.<\/p>\n

Team Canada\u2019s general manager, Doug Armstrong, doesn\u2019t have an easy job. He caught up with insider Pierre LeBrun on Monday to talk about the\u00a0tough decisions\u00a0he is facing, and reiterated that both Bedard and Celebrini are in the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no age limit, at the high end or the low end, but I\u2019m going to say some of the guys at the low end (youngsters) have really \u2026 they\u2019ve found us,\u201d Armstrong said. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re going to really home in on those guys. There\u2019s so many good young players in this game. Connor Bedard has been playing some great hockey right now. He\u2019s taken his game up to a level it wasn\u2019t at last year. Celebrini has continued what he showed last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both players are in the top five in points as the season approaches the end of the first quarter. With the way they are playing, it\u2019s hard to see them falling off too far before the roster selection on New Year\u2019s Eve. The young stars deserve a spot, but will Team Canada\u2019s front office have an appetite to leave off some proven veterans to make room on the Olympics roster? If basing it on past Canadian roster decisions, the answer is no, but Bedard and Celebrini aren\u2019t going down without a fight.<\/p>\n

The trip overseas to Stockholm, Sweden for the NHL Global Series presented the opportunity for the\u00a0Pittsburgh Penguins\u00a0to bring a third-string goaltender with them.<\/p>\n

And they happened to choose a Swede who travelled right to his backyard.<\/p>\n

Penguins’ goaltending prospect Filip Larsson, 27, is currently the starting goaltender for Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton (WBS) Penguins. Larsson signed a two-year deal with the Penguins ahead of the 2024-25 season and owns a 3-0-1 record with a 2.92 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage in five appearances this season.<\/p>\n

Larsson grew up in Stockholm, and –\u00a0as he told Sportsnet Pittsburgh’s Hailey Hunter\u00a0on Tuesday – he has – quite literally – returned home to a very familiar place at Avicii Arena.<\/p>\n

“The arena we practiced at today is where I played for three years,” Larsson said. “So, yeah, it’s nice to be back, and it’s a lot of fun to step out on the ice.”<\/p>\n

From 2014-17, Larsson suited up for Djurgardens Jr. of the Swedish Junior Hockey League, which led to him getting drafted in the sixth round (167th overall) by the Detroit Red Wings in 2016.<\/p>\n

“It was nice. It was one of the best junior teams in Sweden, maybe the best, probably,” Larsson said. “Great program. Went to school, like, five, 10 minutes away from here and played here. So, yeah, it’s great.”<\/p>\n

Larsson joins Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov as the available Penguins’ netminders for the two-game swing against the\u00a0Nashville Predators. The Pens and Preds face off Friday at 2:00 p.m. EDT and Sunday at 9:00 a.m. EDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Team Canada\u2019s hockey roster for the Olympics is one of the toughest lists to crack in all of sports. The NHL has been depriving the world of seeing the best-on-best hockey at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t