St. Louis Blues veteran defenseman Jay Bouwmeester has been named to Canada’s 23-man roster for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey.
He will replace Chicago Blackhawks blue liner Duncan Keith, who is rehabbing a right knee injury.
“As Duncan continues offseason rehabilitation on the right knee injury that he sustained last season, we understand his decision not to participate in next month’s World Cup of Hockey,” Blackhawks team physician, Dr. Michael Terry, said in a statement.
“We believe it is in his best interests to focus on getting stronger and not risk further injury.”
I clarified with the Blackhawks that it is referring to the surgery Keith had to repair a torn meniscus in October.
— Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) August 24, 2016
Bouwmeester, a left-handed shot just as Keith is, which maintains the left-right philosophy for defensive pairings, joins his Blues teammate Alex Pietrangelo on the Canadian roster.
The two not only play together in St. Louis, but they were matched together on the blue line for Canada when it won gold at the 2014 Olympics.
The decision is, well, an interesting one and open to plenty of debate, as the Team Canada brass opted to take Bouwmeester over other Canadian blue liners -- right-handed shots P.K. Subban and Kris Letang among the names -- with far more offensive production from the back end.
Canada's defence could have had three 20-goal scorers on it if Giordano was named.
— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) August 24, 2016
Three.
On defence.
But no.