Team Canada announced their team for the highly-anticipated Four Nations Face-Off this week and one former Toronto Maple Leafs forward was left off the roster.
If a former 50-goal scorer was left off Team Canada, fans would be angry, however when it comes to former Toronto Maple Leafs winger Zach Hyman, there's much less of a debate because despite last season, I don't think anyone really considers him an elite goal scorer. For the past few months, I truly thought that Hyman would make Team Canada and it made me mad.
As much I appreciate Hyman's presence and what he was able to bring to the Leafs and now with the Edmonton Oilers, he shouldn't have made Team Canada. The reason why Hyman has been so successful for years is because he can play with incredibly high-skilled centres, but is that really a hard job?
I know that not every player in the NHL can be amazing beside Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews, but there are so many better forwards who are Canadian that can play alongside McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Mitch Marner and Nathan MacKinnon.
If you currently look who's scheduled to play the left-side, it's insane. Can you imagine if the team decided to pick Hyman over any of Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel, Brad Marchand, Sam Bennet and/or Mark Stone? Doesn't seem right.
Leaving Hyman off Team Canada was a great decision
If any of those five fowards played beside McDavid last year, they would all have 50-plus goals. Not only that, but I promise you that none of them would only have three goals in 20 games this year.
Hyman was seemingly a lock to make this team before having such a dismal start to the season, and I'm so happy they didn't decide to keep him. Team Canada would probably still win with him on the team, but no offense, they could throw me on the fourth-line and they would still probably win.
This isn't a shot at Hyman, but it's more of a shot at how Team Canada sometimes figures out their roster. Chris Kunitz never should have made Team Canada in 2014, and even Colton Parayko is a strange choice this year.
I have no issue picking defensemen who play well together versus forwards because it's way harder to find chemistry on the blue-line versus up-front, so Team Canada's decision to have Devon Toews/ Cale Makar and Shea Theodore/Alex Pietrangelo on the roster makes sense, but keeping Hyman would have been crazy.