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Nitpicky Canadians Not Exactly Universal in Agreement that Travis Sanheim Should Have Made the Olympic Roster
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Travis Sanheim made the Canada Olympic team. It’s really an incredible accomplishment for a guy who could have been traded during the Flyers’ rebuild, but developed late as a legitimate top-pair NHL defenseman:
Good to see a couple of Flyers playing in these games. Sanheim is going along with teammates Rodrigo Abols and Rasmus Ristolainen.
Of course, there’s been some grumbling from Canadian fans at the inclusion of both Sanheim and Drew Doughty. They don’t think Sanheim is good enough and they point out that Doughty is 36 years old. They think Evan Bouchard, Jacob Chychrun, and Matthew Schaefer would have been better picks:
This doesn’t seem very complicated. Canada is running it back with the same eight defensemen they brought to the 4 Nations tournament. Cale Makar and Devon Toews is as good as it gets as a top pair. Those guys played 27 and 24 minutes per game, respectively, in the 4 Nations. Morrissey is a stud and Theodore was injured in the first game, which is why he didn’t play more. Sanheim only averaged 17:22 in three games at the tournament, so he’s not going to be out there as option 1 or 2. He’s going to be a third pair guy at best, maybe 7th D guy on the roster.
Canada GM Doug Armstrong, who tried to trade for Sanheim as Blues GM, is on the record saying he likes Sanheim and Colton Parayko for their size and defensive ability. That’s why they went a little conservative on the blue line while leaving skill at home. Armstrong put more value in reach and physicality after nailing down his no-brainer defensive selections. They need some big bodies net front anyway to deal with the the big USA forwards, for instance.
Sanheim has been steady and consistent for the Flyers over the past year. He’s a legit player. Biggest question I’d have is how many big games has he played in? How many high-leverage, high-stakes type of games? He played 16 games in the 2019-2020 playoffs and 0 since then. That’s because the Flyers have largely been shit. Well, not “largely.” They’ve been absolute shit. So I can see why Canadian fans might be flummoxed a bit by including a Philadelphia player in the Olympic roster, especially when Sanheim (and Parayko) weren’t amazing in the 4 Nations final. But the reason for their Olympic selection seems straightforward based on what we’ve heard from Armstrong and others.
sidenote: that forward group is ridiculous. an embarrassment of riches. that’s like USA sending a football team to the Olympics and having to decide between Amon-Ra St. Brown and Ja’Marr Chase.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com