Olympic projections: Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson absent from US line-up

Dose
Crédit: (Photo by Xavier Laine/Getty Images)

Of necessity, many players are currently auditioning for the Olympic Games across the NHL.

For the Canadiens, four players in particular come to mind (in addition to Juraj Slafkovsky, who has secured his spot for Slovakia): Jakub Dobes, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson.

We’ve been talking about the last three for a while now.

If we focus on the two American players, we know exactly what’s holding back the American management: the size of the players in question. Caufield and Hutson aren’t big guys, and that has to be taken into consideration.

If you read an Olympic projection on the NHL website for the U.S. team at the Games, you’ll see that the site’s experts didn’t include the two Habs players in their projections.

Obviously, this is not the official Olympic roster, which will be released at the end of December. It’s a projection by people who have no control over the situation.

But still: they know what they’re talking about.

In the case of Lane Hutson, I’m not exactly surprised by all this. Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy will be back healthy, which works against the Habs defenseman.

And Hughes is built in the same mold as Hutson… #Small #Offensive

As for Caufield, there could potentially be a bigger debate. How much will the U.S. want to do without the NHL’s leading scorer, as of this morning?

Even though he’s small, he still has his uses over 200 feet and in overtime too.

Note that both players are listed as honorable mentions on the NHL website. In both cases, these are players that everyone will be keeping a close eye on.

And with good reason.

Will this motivate them to excel in the meantime? Martin St-Louis and his bosses must hope so… even if the two Americans could hardly do more right now.

The real question here is what the American leaders think.

overtime

– Speaking of the Olympiques.

– Speaking of Cole Caufield. #MonsieurProlongation

– Artemi Panarin: the case is the talk of the town.

– A summit meeting for the NHL and North America’s junior leagues.

– Well done.