SIMMONS SAYS: Team Canada GM confident in goaltending trio, rest of country not so much

Stuart Skinner was playing goal for the South Side Athletic Club in Edmonton when he first became consumed with a goaltender named Carey Price.

That happened to be in the winter of 2014 when Price brilliantly backstopped Team Canada to a dominant gold medal win at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

At the time, Jordan Binnington was 20 years old and playing for Kalamazoo of the East Coast Hockey League. And that same winter, Adin Hill was a year away from being drafted, learning his craft as a teenager with the tier-two junior Calgary Canucks. And both were fans of Price.

And now it’s all but certain that one of Skinner, Binnington or Hill – maybe the least likely trio of Canadian goaltenders ever – will start in goal for Team Canada at the Four Nations tournament in February and one year later at the Winter Olympics in Milan.

In fairness to Binnington and Hill, they have something Price never attained. They have a Stanley Cup ring, Binnington with the St. Louis Blues; Hill with the Vegas Golden Knights. Skinner, like Price, made it to the Stanley Cup Final.

None are considered elite in a way that previous Canadian Olympic goaltenders – Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo and Price – happened to be.

But this may be all Team Canada can find at a time when Canadian goaltending is lacking star power.

General manager Doug Armstrong, who won a Stanley Cup with Binnington, does not subscribe to the notion that goaltending is the Canadian weakness others view it as. The Americans will select a goalie from a list that includes Connor Hellebuyck, Jeremy Swayman, Thatcher Demko and Jake Oettinger. If there was a Russian team at the next Olympics, they would choose a goalie from Igor Shesterkin, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Sergei Bobrovsky and Ilya Sorokin.

“Look at who wins championships,” said Armstrong. “Seven of the last 10 Stanley Cup winners had Canadian goaltenders. The other three were Russians. We don’t talk enough about who wins. Canadian goalies win.

“And sure, this is a different time (for Canadian goaltending). The floor is closer to the ceiling than ever before. You rarely see a goalie who goes on a decade run or half a decade run the way we used to see it. I’m confident we’ll be all right in goal.”

He’s confident. Skinner, Binnington and Hill may be confident as they play this season to be noticed. The rest of the country – not so confident.

THIS AND THAT

Kyle Dubas signed a seven-year contract to take over the Pittsburgh Penguins and it may take all seven years for him to remake this franchise so in need of alteration. This is Sidney Crosby’s 20th season. This is Evgeni Malkin’s 19th season. This is Kris Letang’s 18th season. They are the three best players on the Penguins and have been that for the past two decades. When they’re gone, what will be left for Dubas to build around? … This is Auston Matthews’ first season as captain of the Maple Leafs. And there are some captain records he’s unlikely to catch. As Leafs captain, Darryl Sittler scored 117 points and 72 of those were assists. The most goals scored by a Leaf captain, Rick Vaive, with 54. That number is attainable for Matthews. The others, maybe not  … Shesterkin wants to be the highest-paid player on the New York Rangers and that would set a new mark for goaltender salaries in hockey. For some reason, forwards are paid significantly more than goalies and defencemen. Of the Top 20 salaries in the NHL, only four are defencemen and only two, which includes the retired Price, are goalies … The best defenceman in hockey, Cale Maker, ranks 36th in salary in the NHL, ahead of Alex Pietrangelo at 40, Miro Heiskanen at 55, Victor Hedman at 76 and Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes at 82 … Why don’t the Leafs have an A-defenceman, I am asked just about every day? By my count, there are only 11 top tier, franchise-changing, defensemen in the NHL. Last I checked, nobody was trading any of them … Phil Kessel has not played hockey in a year nor has he retired. He wants to keep playing. So far, nobody yearns to sign him … Is Kessel a Hall of Famer? Not before Alexander Mogilny, Keith Tkachuk, Rick Middleton, Patrik Elias, Henrik Zetterberg get the honour and once he’s eligible, Joe Thornton. Which means: not likely … The late Bob Johnson used to say that he could take any AHL player and make him an NHLer for a week. But in the second week, you’d discover who he is. Which is why I’m reserving judgment on the perpetually happy Steven Lorentz, who has looked so impressive on the fourth line of the Leafs in the early going … Paul Maurice is among the many who say you don’t know about an NHL defenceman until he’s played 200 games. As of Saturday morning, Timothy Liljegren had played 196.

HERE AND THERE

The last two playoff home runs hit by the Blue Jays happened to be hit by Teoscar Hernandez … Jays GM Ross Atkins believes home runs are overrated. He said that. And power is low-hanging fruit. He said that too. Los Angeles Dodgers scored 24 runs in the National League series against San Diego – 16 of those runs came from homers … Atkins traded Hernandez to Seattle for Erik Swanson. That’s worth remembering … Atkins also believes that the Blue Jays internal statistics indicate there is nothing wrong with George Springer’s offensive capabilities. Never mind that Springer has dropped statistically in home runs, RBI, OPS, OPS+, batting average and on-base percentage, some old stats, some new stats, in each year. His OPS in his first Jays season was .907. His OPS in his fourth Jays season was .674. But yes, all is well … Atkins calls Springer an above-average major league hitter. And if being the 113th best hitter in all of baseball is above average, then he’s correct … Baseball people expect the Blue Jays to make a large offer for free agent Juan Soto but the same people who are saying that are also pretty convinced that Soto will stay in New York, either with the Yankees or the Mets … Before it got its roof blown off by Hurricane Milton, Tropicana Field was the worst stadium in all of baseball. Now it’s the worst stadium in baseball in need of repairs.

SCENE AND HEARD

The NHL was a better place Thursday than it is today. Way back then, two days ago, Ivan Ivan, my favourite, favourite name of a hockey player was still on the roster of the Colorado Avalanche. I look forward, forward to the day Ivan Ivan gets recalled … And I wonder who the better player is: Ivan Ivan or Marcel Marcel … Don’t know what I liked more: the explosion of Macklin Celebrini’s first NHL game in San Jose or the fact that No. 71, Celebrini is playing on a line with No. 72 William Eklund and the veteran of the group, Tyler Toffoli, is wearing No. 73 … When Kyle Connor scored on opening night for the Winnipeg Jets, he became the first player in NHL history to score to in seven straight openers … When Matthew Knies discovers just so much talent he has, he will become a power forward par excellence for the Leafs. He has elite speed, size and strength and once he figures out how to dip his shoulder and drive wide on defenders, he’s going to be an absolute force … This is Joseph Woll’s sixth year of professional hockey. He seems like a terrific kid. But he’s averaged 24 starts per season in that time. Is it dreaming for the Leafs to expect more from him than that? … Teams that can win the Stanley Cup: Florida, Boston, Tampa Bay, Toronto, New York Rangers, Vegas, Colorado, Edmonton and Dallas. Teams that can’t: Just about everybody else …  If the Argos can play defence the way they did Friday night in Winnipeg, they can win the Grey Cup. Their defensive line dominated the sound offensive line of the Blue Bombers, who have been the best team in the CFL for the past eight weeks.

AND ANOTHER THING

Does anything ever go right – post-2020 – for the undermanned Raptors? The Raptors have three players of consequence – Scottie Barnes, R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickly – and two are already hurt … For years, the NCAA has illegally discriminated against major junior hockey players in Canada, disallowing them from gaining scholarships to their schools. Now that players in every sport are getting paid, the NCAA has no choice but to change its rules. But this is a hockey quagmire of sorts that will take a while to properly unpack … Time was, if you played one game of major junior hockey you were not scholarship eligible. What nonsense that was then and now … When the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary in 1980, they had a great first season in their new home. When the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver, they won the Stanley Cup in their first year as the Avalanche. Don’t be surprised if the Utah Hockey Club gets a similar kind of bounce – not Cup winning necessarily – in their first season in Salt Lake City after leaving Arizona  … Argos’ Ryan Dinwiddie is an excitable, emotional head coach. But he needs to calm down at times during games, especially when it comes to determining when to use his instant replay challenges. That should be a late call, not an early call in most games … There wasn’t social media around when the Blue Jays were playing the Kansas City Royals in the 1985 American League Championship Series or the Blue Jays World Series years but there was complaining about Bob Costas doing games, just as there are complaints about him doing New York Yankees games now. Partisan home audiences, for whatever reason, always seem to feel that the impartial national announcer is against them …

As a father, I love the fact LeBron James will open the NBA season on the same team as his son, Bronny. As a basketball lover, I wish it wasn’t so. When and if Bronny is ever ready to play, he should play. And now, just because he happens to be LeBron’s son … I don’t think Alexander Ovechkin gets to 42 goals this season, which would make him the NHL’s highest goal scorer of all time. But I think he’ll be within 10 or so of the record when the season ends … The stuff you did in the schoolyard playing ball seems to stick with you forever. No matter what your age. We used to try and pitch like Luis Tiant as kids, spinning our hips, twirling, throwing our heads back. I tried it again upon learning of Tiant’s passing the other day. If their hips ever spun, they don’t anymore. What a delivery. What an entertainer Tiant was at his best in Boston in the years before the Blue Jays began playing baseball in Toronto … Sam Bennett is a pending free agent with the Florida Panthers. Mitch Marner is a pending free agent with the Maple Leafs. An interesting question asked by a hockey friend: If you had one game to win, who would you want in your lineup, Bennett or Marner? Bennett will be paid $4.4 million this season. Marner will be paid just below $11 million … Department of dumb hockey traditions: The pre-game rookie lap … Every team, every sport, should want a Danny Green-type on the court and in their locker room. He understood what being professional was. He lived it for his entire NBA career … Tom Brady is buying a piece of the Las Vegas Raiders, which will prevent him from being at other team practices and prevent him from meeting with coaches from other teams. So how will he able to broadcast NFL games properly under those circumstances? … Happy birthday to Jerry Rice (62), Garth Iorg (70), Paul Heyman (59), Leon Lett (56), Tony Kubek (89), Jake McCabe (31), Darren Lowe (64), Doc Rivers (63), Trevor Hoffman (57), Yuta Watanabe (30), Adam Fantilli (20) and Paul Pierce (47) … And hey, whatever became of Chris Kunitz?

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