Canada and the USA announced rosters for their Olympic camps today and no Dallas Stars were invited by either country.
Stars forward Jamie Benn was a noticeable omission from Canada’s 47-man camp roster, which includes 25 forwards, 17 defensemen and five goaltenders.
Stars coach Lindy Ruff, who was named as associate coach for Team Canada on Monday, said Benn can use not getting invited to the camp as motivation during the first part of next season and put himself in a position to make Canada’s Olympic roster.
“His name was definitely in all the talks,” Ruff said. “You can take that and let it motivate yourself. You can say I am going to use these three months and put myself on the map, and make them make a hard decision. The ball is in Jamie’s court. He’s going to have to outplay some players that are maybe ahead of him and use that as a tool to motivate himself. I’d like to put him in the best position possible to do that.”
Stars defensemen Alex Goligoski was considered a possibility for Team USA, but he was not among the 18 defensemen invited by USA Hockey.
Stars defenseman Sergei Gonchar was among the 35 players named to Russia’s preliminary Olympic roster, which was released today. Gonchar was one of 12 defensemen named to the preliminary roster, which will gather in Sochi next month.
Finland released its candidates for the Olympics last month, and Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen was one of eight goaltenders named.
Monday’s preliminary roster/camp announcements
Canada: Hockey Canada Release | Canada’s Camp Roster
USA: USA Hockey Release & Roster
Russia: Story and roster (NHL.com)
