Bill Guerin wanted to change the rules to make room for the 4 nations

During the Four Nations Showdown, which will take place next February, there will be three players from the Montreal Canadiens: Samuel Montembeault, Patrik Laine and Joel Armia.

But it’s not just the chosen guys who have been talked about: the absent ones too.

Not seeing Nick Suzuki caused a lot of talk. And even if Julien BriseBois said the opposite yesterday, we can think that the Canadian captain of the Canadiens was not in too much demand. Not going to the World Championship in 2024 undoubtedly hurt him.

And the other player who got people talking is Cole Caufield.

After all, as the Canadian was not afraid to say, Cole Caufield was the leading American scorer in the NHL at the time the teams were announced. And he still is.

But because the Americans had other players for the top-6 and Cole Caufield isn’t exactly built to play against Canada’s fourth line, he was left out.

But don’t think it was easy.

According to what Renaud Lavoie reports this morning, Bill Guerin (the American GM) called the NHL to ask that the rosters go from 23 players to 25. His objective was to make room for Caufield.

But he was told no.

What that means is that Caufield was one of the finalists for a job. So it really wouldn’t be surprising if in the event of an injury, it was he who received the call to the national team to be a replacement.

All this remains to be followed… but being him, I don’t bookerais not too quickly my vacation in the sun in February, let’s say.