Team Canada’s brain trust has fewer than three weeks to finalize its roster for the upcoming Winter Olympics, and there are plenty of hard decisions to make.
Among the toughest calls is whether to invite Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson to Italy. Wilson, 31, is on pace to smash his career highs in goals (33) and points (65) in his 13th NHL season. His 32 points in 31 games this season are tied with Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby for 10th most among Canadian players.
“I’ll tell you what Team Canada is about,” Capitals coach and British Columbia native Spencer Carbery told The Washington Post. “What Canadians believe is our team: we play the right way. We compete. We do anything for each other. We’re a team first. And that’s Tom.”
Team Canada’s forward roster at the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this year had an average height of six feet and weight of 190 pounds. Mark Stone, listed at six-foot-three and 210 pounds, was the team’s biggest forward.
Wilson (six-foot-four, 225 pounds) would overtake Stone in that department. His size and tenacity could be more of an advantage for Team Canada on the smaller ice surface, which is more than three feet shorter than the NHL’s standard 200×85-foot dimensions.
Wilson has 17 goals — seven at 5-on-5, six on the power play and four empty-netters — as the Capitals’ most multi-faceted forward. In fact, Wilson is one of three Canadian forwards in the league who averages at least two minutes per game on each special-teams unit. (New York’s Bo Horvat and Los Angeles’ Quinton Byfield are the others).
As part of Washington’s No. 1 power-play unit, Wilson mans the net-front, where he has recorded 12 deflection attempts — tied for most in the league on the man advantage. Three have led to goals, which puts him tied for second in that category.
Although Wilson would be unlikely to crack Team Canada’s top power-play unit if he were to make the team, coach Jon Cooper could certainly trust Wilson in lead-protecting situations. Wilson leads all forwards this season with 15:21 of ice time when the opposition has an empty net, according to NHL Stats and Information.
Watch here as Wilson blocks a shot from Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard before sealing the Capitals’ 7-4 win over the Oilers last month:
“How tall is he — six-four? That can be a blessing and a curse,” Cooper told reporters last month. “It’s a blessing to be six-four, but it can also be a curse if you’re six-four and you don’t know how to use it. Unfortunately for opposing teams, Tom Wilson knows how to use it.”
The primary issue regarding Wilson is his lengthy disciplinary history. Wilson has been suspended six times in his career, most recently in March 2024 for high-sticking. It was, however, his first suspension in more than three years. Wilson has also been fined four times, most recently in April for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The International Ice Hockey Federation has stricter rules regarding physicality, which could put Wilson at risk if, for example, he levels an opponent the way he flattened Vancouver’s Filip Chytil early in the season.
Wilson also does not play centre, while other hopefuls such as Chicago’s Connor Bedard and San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini can play either centre or wing. (Bedard suffered an apparent shoulder injury Friday that will sideline him for at least one game.)
“Team Canada’s the hardest team in the world for any sport, basically, to make,” Wilson recently told The Post. “Besides maybe the New Zealand All Blacks (in rugby) or Team USA Basketball — Team Canada is right up there. There’s so many good players, and every Canadian guy is having a great year.”
Still, The Athletic reported earlier this month that “Team Canada will likely swap in Wilson for (Philadelphia’s) Travis Konecny.”
Konecny, who gives up six inches and more than 30 pounds to Wilson, has eight goals and 25 points in 29 games for the Flyers this season. But Cooper scratched Konecny twice during the 4 Nations Face-Off and played him just 11:16 when he was in the lineup for Team Canada.
The intensity at the 4 Nations Face-Off, especially when Team Canada faced Team USA, was off the charts. Wilson, who has appeared in 97 career playoff games and won the Stanley Cup in 2018, thrives in that type of environment. Team Canada would be wise to bring him to the Olympics.
