DALLAS — Team Canada has not been in direct contact with Bo Horvat or Matthew Schaefer after cutting its list for the Olympics to 35-40 players last week, both players told The Post Tuesday morning, but that is not to imply that either are out of the mix to go to Milan.
In fact, the belief is that Horvat is very much still in the mix for Team Canada. As for Schaefer, the situation is less clear — the Olympics weren’t on anybody’s mind at the start of the season, and he’s very young — but it would be a surprise if he wasn’t catching the attention of Canada’s brass given how often they’ve watched the Islanders in-person this season to scout both Horvat and Mathew Barzal.
While there are fair arguments for both to make the roster or not when it is announced ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline, neither was taking the lack of direct communication as meaning anything. Team Canada’s brass, Horvat said, is talking to general managers and agents as opposed to players themselves, and No. 14 understands that he’s very much in the conversation for the Olympics.
“They’ve obviously shown a lot of interest and said [through intermediaries] I’m kinda right there,” Horvat told The Post before the Islanders faced the Stars. “They haven’t let on as far as whether or not I’ve made it or anything like that. Obviously a lot of hockey to be played. It’s my absolute dream to be on that team. I would do anything to be there.”
Schaefer, a longer shot to make the team given his age, was a little more circumspect about the possibility of going to Italy.
“I’m just playing hockey,” Schaefer told The Post. “Don’t need to worry about that. But no one’s reached out. I’ve just been focusing on my team and what we’ve got going on here.”
Team Canada’s management team — which includes Blues GM Doug Armstrong, Lightning GM Julien BriseBois, Penguins GM Kyle Dubas and Bruins GM Don Sweeney — has been a frequent sight in the press box at Islanders games. Dubas was at the first two games of this road trip at the Rangers and Devils, which coincided with a Penguins trip to New Jersey, and Armstrong will presumably be at UBS Arena on Saturday afternoon when the Blues face the Islanders.
Schaefer has been more frequent topic of conversation and debate as it relates to his Olympics chances — Canada has tough choices to make regarding the last three No. 1 overall picks with Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard both having strong starts in San Jose and Chicago — but Horvat may have the stronger case of the two.
His scoring has slowed down slightly this week, with three straight games without a goal heading into Tuesday night, but Horvat is still averaging well over a point-per-game and his 12 goals so far are a career-high pace.
Given how tight the games were at Four Nations last year, and the offensive proclivity inherent in a Canada lineup that will include Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, Horvat’s ability to play 200 feet and kill penalties are serious points in his favor, too.
With Schaefer, it will likely come down to how comfortable Team Canada ultimately feels about having so young and inexperienced playing on the biggest possible stage. It’s a longer shot than Horvat, but would be a terrific story and Schaefer’s play is forcing a conversation that looked unlikely just six weeks ago.
Understandably, Schaefer did not want to say anything to pour fuel on the fire Tuesday morning.
“You don’t really listen to that stuff,” he said. “There’s gonna be stuff on social media, that’s people just putting out what they think. But obviously there’s still lots of hockey. I’m still young. The biggest thing is work hard, do what you do on the ice. They obviously can make a decision at the end of the day. You don’t think about anything like that.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
