Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook and captain Jonathan Toews will not play for Canada at the 2017 World Championship.
The trio all won gold medals with Canada at the last two Olympic Games. Toews was the only one to play at the World Cup of Hockey last fall, recording three goals and five points in six games as the Canadians won gold. Keith was on Canada’s roster, but withdrew before the tournament to focus on rehabbing his knee.
Toews isn’t playing Worlds. Wouldn’t delve into into specifics if he was injured but sounded like he needed to heal.
— Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) April 22, 2017
Team Canada contacted Brent Seabrook to play in World Championship but he declined. His wife due to give birth in two weeks. #Blackhawks
— Chris Kuc (@ChrisKuc) April 22, 2017
Goaltender Corey Crawford hasn’t been contacted by Canada, but is interested in playing. Crawford represented Canada for the first time at the World Cup, where he made 19 saves in his only start.
The World Championships will be played from May 5 to 21 in Cologne, Germany and Paris, France. Group A games will be played at Lanxess Arena (18,500 capacity) in Cologne, while Group B will be at AccorHotels Arena (15,000 capacity).
Canada will go for a three-peat this year after defeating Russia and Finland the last two years, respectively. The Canadians are in Group B with Finland, who took silver at last year’s Worlds, along with Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belarus, Norway, France and Slovenia. Group A consists of Denmark, Germany, Italy, Lativa, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States.