Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford, forward Jonathan Toews and defenseman Duncan Keith were named to Team Canada’s initial 16-man roster for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, the team’s general manager Doug Armstrong announced Wednesday on SportsNet’s Hockey Central.
Keith and Toews will look to add more gold to their resumes. Both players won gold at the 2010 and 2014 Olympics, and silver at the 2008 World Championships. Toews won gold at the 2007 WC, and became the 24th player of the Triple Gold Club in 2010 after winning his first Stanley Cup with Chicago.
Crawford has never represented Canada in international competition.
And here is your Team Canada preliminary 16-man World Cup roster: pic.twitter.com/JZQWyiGOaj
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) March 2, 2016
Joel Quenneville is going to run Canada’s defense at the World Cup, per Armstrong.
— Mike Halford (@HalfordPHT) March 2, 2016
Designed for glory, built to win. Introducing the official Canada #WCH2016 jersey. pic.twitter.com/YP8FVdQHYe
— adidas Canada (@adidasCA) March 2, 2016
This year’s World Cup of Hockey, which represents the event’s return after a hiatus, is set for September and will be held in Toronto. The format is slightly modified from the past World Cup tournaments, with six national teams and two special “all-star teams” participating.
The eight teams that will compete this year are the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia and the Czech Republic, plus Team Europe and Under-23 Team North America.
Team USA is the last team to announce their initial roster. They will make the announcement at 5:45 p.m. CT on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”