With the introduction of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the National Hockey League had to make a major decision on a certain major athletic event that brings the world together for just a few weeks every few years—the 2022 Winter Olympics are taking place from Friday, Feb. 4, to Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022, in Beijing, China. With the increase in cases around the NHL and the quarantine period lasting anywhere from three to five weeks, they decided it would be best if the league pulled out of the Olympics with there being a high chance of going to the 2026 Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. There is one hockey league that could possibly be impacted at a high rate due to the NHL’s departure, and that is the NCAA.

Some of the NCAA’s top talent took their skills to Edmonton and Red Deer for the 2022 World Junior Championships only for the tournament to get canceled just a few days in. There could now be a case for some of the league’s best to take a break from collegiate hockey to represent their country at the Olympics. One player that can definitely be discussed as someone who could play for Team Canada in Beijing is University of Michigan defenseman Owen Power. The first overall selection in the 2021 NHL Draft has already shown that he can perform under the lights after scoring a hat trick in Canada’s first game of the 2021 World Juniors versus the Czech Republic.

As noted by Chris Peters of DailyFaceoff, some of the other NCAA prospects that could be under consideration for the United States or Canadian rosters for the 2022 Olympics are Kent Johnson, Thomas Bordeleau, Brendan Brisson, and Matty Beniers (Michigan), Ryan Johnson, and Brock Faber (Minnesota), Parker Ford (Providence), Ronnie Attard (Western Michigan), Noah Cates (Minnesota Duluth), Nathan Smith (Minnesota State-Mankato), and Jake Sanderson (North Dakota).

In 2018, the United States had Will Borgen (St. Cloud State), Troy Terry (Denver), Ryan Donato (Harvard), and Jordan Greenway (Boston University) on their roster, while North Dakota’s Ludvig Hoff played for Team Finland.

Looking into past situations where Islanders prospects could have represented the team at the Olympic level, Kieffer Bellows played in two World Junior Championships, the second of which lining up with an Olympic year. That season, he played for the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League but had he stayed at Boston University for another season, this situation could have applied to Bellows. Oliver Wahlstrom missed this discussion by a year, as he did represent the USA in the World Juniors during his sole collegiate season at Boston College, which he finished out in Bridgeport with the then-Bridgeport Sound Tigers, but it was in 2018-19 rather than the year before, which was when the 2018 Olympics were held.

The New York Islanders have six players lacing up at the NCAA level this season, two of which previously skated for the USA in a World Juniors tournament—Jake Pivonka (Notre Dame) and Logan Cockerill (Boston University). Pivonka recently made his season debut in a series against Michigan State on Dec. 10 & 11 after suffering an Achilles injury in July. Had Pivonka not suffered the injury and performed at a high level in his senior season with the Fighting Irish and the USA, led by General Manager John Vanbiesbrouck and Head Coach David Quinn were to select an NCAA hockey focused team, then he could have potentially been under consideration.

No matter what the finalized rosters look like for all the teams competing in the 2022 Olympics for hockey, all teams’ front offices and coaching staff will have to be creative in putting together their roster, just like they had to be in 2018.

SEF