Olympics 2026: Bill Guerin doesn’t seem to want a guy like Cole Caufield

Dose
Crédit: (Photo by Christopher Mast/NHLI via Getty Images)

At the moment, no player has more goals than Cole Caufield in the NHL this season. The CH forward, who has nine goals after 11 games, is in spectacular form at the start of the season.

Especially as he has a flair for the dramatic with his goals, hehe.

And what’s interesting is that all this comes at a time when Caufield is trying to convince U.S. officials to select him for the upcoming Olympic Games. We know it’s going to be tough, but he’s pulling out all the stops right now…

Except that Bill Guerin, Team USA‘s GM, doesn’t sound like someone who wants a guy like Caufield. In an interview with Michael Russo(The Athletic), Guerin really emphasized the importance of selecting guys who can hit and play short-handed.

And as Russo notes, that doesn’t sound like a good sign for Caufield.

We know that the U.S. already has many players who will occupy important offensive roles. If we look only at the wing, we expect to see the Tkachuk brothers, Jake Guentzel, Matt Boldy and Kyle Connor… and Jack Hughes, a natural center, was used on the wing at the 4 Nations Confrontation.

There are already quite a few people to pack off… and Caufield, even if he has greatly improved his defensive game, doesn’t have the profile of a support player that Guerin seems to advocate.

And as for Lane Hutson, Russo has the impression that there’s a path that would lead him to the Olympics: the one in which Adam Fox is ignored. We know that Fox didn’t look good at the 4 Nations… and if the club wants to tamp him down, Hutson may suddenly believe in his chances.

You’d think he’d be there as an extra, though: as long as Quinn Hughes and Zach Werenski are there, Hutson has very little chance of being in uniform.

We’ll keep an eye on all this over the next few weeks, but for now, both guys have to keep giving everything they’ve got on the ice. That’s how they’ll make Guerin’s job harder.

Overtime

– It’s now official.

– What can you expect tomorrow?

– What will happen with Jason Robertson?