Every holiday season people utilize their time off at the end of the year to go back home and celebrate time with their families, at least, for the first couple days. After that, it’s all about finding any excuse to get away from said family (“oh yeah no I made plans with my friend’s uncle’s cousin’s gardener, haven’t seen them in forever so I can’t really cancel on them”).
In Canada, that also usually means taking a spin on the old ODR (outdoor rink), whether that be at your local community centre, out on the frozen lake, or in your own backyard if you are really lucky and your dad is trying to prevent the aforementioned escapes.
Which got us thinking: what if each Canadian NHL city had to put forward their own, homegrown roster for a holiday season tournament?
The rules:
- Players must be born in the municipal region of each team, which is going to be based on Wikipedia.
- We are also going to go by a player’s birthplace even if they did end up growing up somewhere else to make things more simple.
- We will try our best to ice a full four forward lines, three defence pairings and two goalies. Where that is not possible, we will try our best to extend the borders as far as we can to make it happen. If that still doesn’t work, then those players better get ready for a whole lot of skating.
- Finally, this is going to be active players only, meaning players with both an active NHL contract and who have played at least one NHL game in their career, because everyone knows when the younger players get on the ice all the older people (read: me included) get off because the last thing anyone wants to do is actually try to skate on a belly full of Christmas treats and beer. As per the last point though, if there aren’t enough players on an active NHL contract, unsigned free agents who have played in the NHL and are not officially retired will be included.
Team Edmonton
Forwards:
Brendan Gallagher – Kirby Dach – Jake DeBrusk
Noah Gregor – Sam Steel – Dylan Guenther
James Hamblin – Tyson Jost – Trey Fix-Wolansky
Brandon Biro – Matthew Savoie – Ian Mitchell
Defence:
Brett Kulak – Jared Spurgeon
Kaiden Guhle – Colton Parayko
Josh Mahura – Matt Benning
Goalies:
Carter Hart
Stuart Skinner
Unlike the actual NHL team in Edmonton, this team seems to be built from the net out, with two young starter caliber goalies in Carter Hart and Stuart Skinner.
On defence, you have the Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon, along with veterans Brett Kulak and Colton Parayko to lead the group. You also have a young up and coming offensive dman in Kaiden Guhle, and a young defensive first minded one in Josh Mahura.
It is up front that this team is weak. And that is probably too nice of a way to put it.
While Brendan Gallagher and Jake DeBrusk are not the worst top-six wingers, the rest of the team leaves a lot to be desired.
Granted, it is a young group of forwards, with the remaining 10 forwards being 25-years-old or younger.
Kirby Dach definitely has potential to be a solid first line centre, and showed that last year, but another injury has limited him to just two games this year.
Matthew Savoie is playing in the WHL now BUT luckily for Edmonton he did play one NHL game this year, so I’m going to count it. Plus, look at that roster, this Edmonton team needs all the help it can get.
Dylan Guenther is a solid prospect who put up 15 points in 33 NHL games last year with the Coyotes and currently has 20 points in 23 games in the AHL.
But after that, you have two first-round “busts” in Sam Steel and Tyson Jost, who are NHL regulars but not the scoring threats they were once imagined to be, and then very serviceable bottom-sixers in James Hamblin and Noah Gregor.
Finishing it out are Brandon Biro and Trey Fix-Wolansky, who have played a career total of six and 16 NHL games each.
There also isn’t even enough forwards to fill out a roster, so we need to use a defenceman on the fourth line. We could have put Mark Pysyk in that spot, as he just signed an NHL contract on December 2 and has had a solid career, but a) he hasn’t yet played an NHL game since 2022 and b) he signed with the rival Calgary Flames, so Ian Mitchell, who a) has played an NHL game this season and b) is not a traitor, gets the spot.
Maybe there is some merit to there being “something in the water” in Edmonton, as Gallagher, Hamblin, Jost, Fix-Wolansky, Biro, Savoie, and Spurgeon are all under 6’0”, while Gregor, Steel, Mitchell, and Mahura are all exactly 6’0”.
Interestingly, seven players have played for either the hometown Oilers or Oil Kings (eight if you include Pysyk), along with another four who played with local AJHL teams with Biro and Mitchell playing for the Spruce Grove Saints, and Savoie and Steel with the Sherwood Park Crusaders.
These 11 players are the most out of any team in this exercise. They must really love that home cooking. Or the aforementioned water.
Team Calgary
Forwards:
Taylor Hall – Brayden Point – William Nylander
Jake Neighbours – Brett Howden – Matthew Phillips
Dylan Holloway – Peyton Krebs – Alexander Nylander
Brett Leason – Jaret Anderson-Dolan – Sheldon Rempal
Defence:
Josh Morrissey – Cale Makar
Akito Hirose – Jake Bean
Dillon Heatherington – Cale Fleury
Goalies:
Logan Thompson
Aaron Dell
Aaron Dell doesn’t have a current NHL contract, but also isn’t retired, so we will allow him to join this team as the backup goalie.
But with how top heavy this team is, it probably doesn’t matter who is in net.
When all three of your first line forwards have scored 80+ points multiple times (two of which you probably didn’t even know were born in Calgary, especially since one plays for Team Sweden), and your number one defenceman is a Norris, Conn Smythe, and and Calder Trophy winner, while his partner is another top pairing defenceman who finished fifth in Norris Trophy voting last year, you’re probably going to be ok.
Logan Thompson is no slouch as a starting goalie either, and but-for his injury last year and Adin Hill’s appearance out of nowhere, he probably would have been the #1 on a Stanley Cup winner.
The depth of this team is where there are some issues though.
Jake Neighbours, Dylan Holloway, and Matthew Phillips are all at the start of their NHL careers and showing some promise, but haven’t quite grabbed the bull by the horns just yet.
Peyton Krebs, Brett Howden, and Alex Nylander are all former first-round picks who haven’t really performed to the standards expected either.
Brett Leason and Josh Anderson-Dolan have managed to carve out fourth-line careers, but Sheldon Rempal had played only 12 NHL games with zero points.
On defence, Jake Bean is a decent enough player who can manage in a top-four role, but the next three on the depth chart are all currently in the AHL.
This team boasts five players who played for a Calgary-based organization, with Bean playing the majority of his WHL career with the Hitmen, Holloway spending his AJHL career with the Okotoks Oilers (fitting team name), Leason (two games) and Dell (74 games) played with the Calgary Canucks, and Phillips spent 66 games for the AHL’s Wranglers and three games with the Calgary Flames (and that was the end of his NHL career if you ask Flames fans).
They have almost as many players (3) who have played for Edmonton-based organizations, in Hall, Holloway and Neighbours. Not saying that means anything vis a vis the debate of which city is better.
Team Vancouver
Forwards:
Evander Kane – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Connor Bedard
Michael Rasmussen – Matthew Barzal – Sam Reinhart
Danton Heinen – Ryan Johansen – Alex Kerfoot
Kent Johnson – Jujhar Khaira – Colton Sissons
Defence:
Shea Theodore – Morgan Rielly
Brenden Dillon – Dante Fabbro
Kevin Bahl – Troy Stecher
Goalies:
Tristan Jarry
Martin Jones
This team is definitely the best we’ve seen so far, with only one player currently playing in the AHL in Jujhar Khaira.
Up front you have two first overall picks, one who is a generational talent in Connor Bedard and the other one who knows how to play with a generational talent named Connor in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. We round that line out with Evander Kane who has showed some chemistry with Nuge and said other generational talent.
You’ve then got another first line centre in Matt Barzal anchoring your second line with a rejuvenated Sam Reinhart.
A third line of Danton Heinen, Ryan Johansen, and Alex Kerfoot is solid as well, with the up and coming Kent Johnson likely going to be trading spots with Michael Rasmussen sooner rather than later.
This team also has a solid defence core, with two top pairing defencemen in Shea Theodore and Morgan Rielly, who unlike Calgary have a solid bottom-four defencemen to help them out.
Finally, you have a starting goalie in Tristan Jarry, and a capable backup in Martin Jones.
This team has six players who played for local teams growing up: Troy Stecher played four seasons with the hometown Vancouver Canucks, Kane played his junior career with the Vancouver Giants, while Barzal (six games) and Kerfoot both played for the Coquitlam Express in the BCHL, Heinen played with the Surrey Eagles, and Dante Fabbro played one game the Langley Rivermen.
You also have almost as many players who also played for Edmonton-based organizations again in Kane, Nuge, Khaira, and Jarry. And they say no one wants to play here.
Team Winnipeg
Forwards:
Max Domi – Seth Jarvis – Mark Stone
Ryan Reaves – Nolan Patrick – Jordan Martinook
Wade Allison – Cody Glass – Keegan Kolesar
Jonathan Toews – Justin Kirkland – Adam Brooks
Defence:
Travis Sanheim – Ryan Pulock
Zach Whitecloud – Calen Addison
Nick Cicek – Dylan McIlrath
Goalies:
Joel Hofer
Chris Driedger
Because there are only 12 players from Winnipeg (along with two who are currently free agents), we’ve opened it up to the province of Manitoba as a whole. However, we had to keep those 12 and only fill out the rest of the team with non-Winnipeggers. That means no James Reimer, Travis Hamonic, or Morgan Geekie, all of whom probably make this team over some of the native born Winnipeg players.
You have an All-Star in Mark Stone, and another former great in Jonathan Toews to help lead the team, although how much he can help out on the ice is possibly debatable.
Seth Jarvis is a solid centre who has posted 22 points in 31 games this year, pacing him for a career best 58 points.
Max Domi is really your only other viable top-six option after that. And who knew he was born in Winnipeg? Not me. Even pulling from the rest of the province only nets you some bottom-six options in Jordan Martinook, who is on the second line here, and Keegan Kolesar.
Your next two centres are high picks who also haven’t haven’t lived up to their billing, and don’t seem likely to. Nolan Patrick unfortunately has had his career derailed by injuries, while Cody Glass seemed to have found his footing last year, posting 35 points in 72 games for Nashville, but only has one point in 13 games this season.
The remaining three players are all currently in the AHL, although Wade Allison did manage to play 60 games for Philadelphia last year.
On defence, the only native Winnipeggers are on the bottom pairing and both in the AHL this year.
Opening it up to the rest of the province does help this team out, as you have a breakout player this year in Travis Sanheim, a solid partner for him in Ryan Pulock, along with a steady Zach Whitecloud and a rookie offensive defenceman in Calen Addison as your second pairing. You also could have had Travis Hamonic and Joel Edmunson as your third pairing from the rest of the province, but rules are rules.
Goaltending goes back to being a problem though, with your options being either young Joel Hofer who only has 18 career NHL games or Chris Driedger who is currently in the AHL after managing a three-year, $10.5M contract from one good season in Florida.
Brooks and Cicek are the only players to have played for a local Winnipeg team, with Brooks playing 14 games for the Winnipeg Jets and Cicek playing a season for the Winnipeg Blues of the MJHL, which doesn’t help the whole nobody wants to live in Winnipeg narrative. Perhaps we should have included Hamonic for having played a season with the Winnipeg Saints, but I think everyone will agree that Addison is probably the better choice at this point.
Interestingly, this is the only team to not have a single player who laced up for an Edmonton-based team.
Team Toronto
There are 31 current NHL players that were born in Toronto proper according to Hockey Reference (i.e. it list Toronto as their birth city), and so to make things even (I mean look at poor Ottawa below), we are only going to use these players for this team.
Forwards:
Zach Hyman – Carter Verhaeghe – Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane – Jordan Kyrou – Jeff Skinner
Brandon Tanev – Evan Rodrigues – Wyatt Johnston
Barclay Goodrow – Andrew Cogliano – Connor Brown
Defence:
Adam Pelech – Dougie Hamilton
Jamie Oleksiak – Chris Tanev
Mark Giordano – Jamie Drysdale
Goalies:
Malcolm Subban
Spencer Martin
An issue here is the lack of goalies, as we only have one. This sounds surprising until you remember the projected goalies for Team Canada as a whole in 2026 and realize there is definitely something wrong with our development system in that position.
If we open it up to the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (TCMA), which is not as big as the Greater Toronto Area, then we have the options of Scott Wedgewood, Spencer Martin, and Jordan Binnington. Because Oakville is the closest to Toronto according to Google Maps at 37.6 km, we will put Martin as the backup. Unfortunately for this team that is 0.4 km closer than Binnington’s Richmond Hill.
The “weakness” of this team, other than goaltending, is that there isn’t a bona fide superstar, although you could definitely argue Dougie Hamilton fits that bill.
But the depth of this team is probably the best among all the teams here, as every single player is an NHL regular. Yes, even Connor Brown to some Oilers fans dismay.
You’ve got two players who have recently broken out from solid top-sixers to bona fide first liners in Zach Hyman and Carter Verhaeghe. Tom Wilson rounds that line out as a power forward with a little scoring touch and a whole lot of edge.
The second line is anchored by Jordan Kyrou, who signed an eight-year, $65M deal along with Robert Thomas as part of the future core for the St. Louis Blues. While his start to this season has been a bit slow (and a “no comment” comment on former Coach Craig Berube resulted in him being booed by his hometown fans), he is still a first-line forward and luxury on the second line.
Jeff Skinner has bounced back from the pressure of his eight-year $72M contract that looked to be in the running for worst contract in the NHL in the first couple years.
Andrew Mangiapane looked to be another breakout player a couple years ago when he potted 35 goals, but he has dropped back down to his usual pace of around 0.5 points per game, which is still good enough for the second line.
On the third line, you have grit and defensive acumen in Brandon Tanev, a young Wyatt Johnston who looks to be on track to being a point per game player in the near future, and Evan Rodrigues who seems to have found his scoring touch in the last few years.
The fourth line is one that you would likely have no problem throwing out on a regular shift with Barclay Goodrow, Andrew Cogliano, and Connor Brown.
Defence is also not a problem for this team.
Adam Pelech is a top notch stay at home defenceman, and looks to pair nicely with Hamilton, who played his best seasons and finished fourth and seventh in Norris voting when playing with another stay at home D in Jacocb Slavin.
A second pairing of Jamie Oleksiak and Chris Tanev should further help on the defensive end to mitigate the goaltending.
A 40-year-old Mark Giordano adds some leadership to this group, although you could replace him with Jake Walman to up the griddy quotient. Jamie Drysdale helps balance the third pairing out, being almost half Giordano’s age. He is also probably only a season away from pushing Hamilton for that top pairing spot.
Hyman played for both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Marlies, while Verhaeghe was drafted by the Leafs and managed to fit in two games with the Marlies before being traded to the New York Islanders. Giordano and Brown also played for the Leafs (with Brown also playing for the St. Michael’s Buzzers), while Mangiapane played four games with the Toronto Jr. Canadiens in the OJHL, and Cogliano and Drysdale join Brown as having played for the Buzzers.
Granted, Giordano, Goodrow, and the Tanevs all played for OJHL teams situated in locations that are considered part of Toronto.
Even if you include them, though, that is still 10 players, one less than Edmonton’s hometown boys.
Hyman, Cogliano, and Brown have all played for the Oilers as well, another solid contingent.
Now, if we only did players from the TCMA without anyone from Toronto proper, that team would be an absolute power house:
Steven Stamkos – Connor McDavid – Mitch Marner
Robert Thomas – John Tavares – Sam Bennett
Quinton Byfield – Tyler Seguin – Tyler Toffoli
Mason Marchment – Anthony Cirelli – Michael Bunting
Vince Dunn – Evan Bouchard
Owen Power – Sean Durzi
Travis Dermott – Victor Mete
That’s leaving off names like Sean Monahan, the Strome brothers, the McLeod brothers, and Nick Paul—to name a few.
And yes, I know that we have included suburbs for the other teams. But, like…for fairness sake we have to do Toronto birth city only. Either that or each player has to shoot with the wrong hand. Blindfolded.
Who are we kidding though, even in that case McDavid probably still wins this tournament on his own.
Team Ottawa
Forwards:
Jack Quinn – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Rem Pitlick
Jeffrey Viel – William Bitten – Benoit-Olivier Groulx
Hendrix Lapierre – Derrick Brassard – Paul Byron
Zachary Senyshyn – Ryan Spooner – Max Veronneau
Defence:
Mackenzie Weegar – Cody Ceci
Calvin De Haan – Brandt Clarke
Mark Borowiecki – Erik Gudbranson
Goalies:
*crickets*
Ottawa has a unique situation, as the National Capital Region includes parts of Quebec in the nearby Gatineau region. Even still, that only gets us eight active forwards (including an unsigned Derrick Brassard), five defencemen, and no goalies.
In order to try and get some more bodies, we have added the italicized players who are either recently retired or are currently playing overseas.
Even then, we STILL don’t have a goalie from Ottawa. I guess the nation’s capital not having a goalie is a nice little nod to the fact that the country as a whole seems to have a goaltending issue.
The most recent goalie from Ottawa to play in the NHL was Fred Braithwaite in 2004, and who last strapped on the pads professionally in 2012 for the Mannheim Eagles in the German DEL. He did suit up as the Henderson Silver Knights’ backup on April 24, 2021 when Logan Thompson went down for an injury, so we will give him the starting job here.
The next most recent was Tyler Moss, who also last played in 2012 for the Nuremberg Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers also in the DEL. Yes that was the actual team name, as they were sponsored by the jewellery company Thomas Sabo. Hopefully I didn’t just give Gary Bettman another revenue stream idea and we won’t see the Edmonton Rogers Oilers versus the Vancouver Rogers Canucks anytime soon.
But it’s ODR, so do you really need a goalie? They can just play posts in their games.
In that case, the team has Jack Quinn and Jean-Gabriel Pageau up front, but not much else. Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Lapierre are the only other forwards to actually played in the NHL this year, scoring three points in 11 games and a whopping one point in 20 games, respectively.
Defence isn’t terrible for the team though, as Mackenzie Weegar and Cody Ceci are both top-four defencemen for their teams (Alberta teams, mind you), while Calvin De Haan and Erik Gudbranson are third-pairing defencemen who aren’t quite what they once were.
Brandt Clarke is the big name, as he has torn up juniors, now in the AHL as a defenceman (26 points in 25 games this year), and could be huge in a pond hockey game. He is likely the number one defenceman on this team in about a year or two.
Ceci, Senyshyn, Brassard, Pageau, Gudbranson, Borowiecki, and Verroneau all played for the Ottawa Senators at some point, making them the highest number of players who played for the hometown NHL team in this exercise.
In addition, Quinn played for the Kanata Lasers of the CCHL and then the Ottawa 67’s in the OHL (as did Ceci), Pageau and Byron played for the Gatineau Olympiques of the QMJHL, Weegar and Moss played for the Nepean Raiders of the CCHL, De Haan played for the Kemptville 73’s (what is up with Ottawa teams and their number names?), Bitten played for the Ottawa Jr. Senators, and Veronneau with the Gloucester Rangers.
Ceci, Brassard, Spooner, and Braithwaite all played for the Edmonton Oilers at some point, while Moss played his final professional North American season with the AHL Edmonton Roadrunners during the lockout. The four Oilers ties Team Edmonton for the lead in that category.
Team Montreal
Forwards:
Anthony Duclair – Jonathan Huberdeau – Anthony Mantha
Nicolas Deslauriers – Joe Veleno – Alexis Lafrenniere
Raphael Lavoie – William Carrier – Mathieu Joseph
Samuel Laberge – Samuel Poulin – Gabriel Fortier
Defence:
Mike Matheson – Kris Letang
Marco Scandella – Vincent Desharnais
Pierre-Olivier Joseph – Marc Edouard Vlasic
Goalies:
Devon Levi
Kevin Mandolese
Montreal’s top six isn’t too bad, although Jonathan Huberdeau, Anthony Mantha, and Anthony Duclair all seem to have taken a step back lately. However, Alexis Lafrenniere appears to be on an upwards trajectory towards the expectations set by his first overall status, and Joe Veleno is only eight points back of his career high in 50 less games.
The rest of the forward group isn’t great though, as only William Carrier and Mathieu Joseph are regular NHLers, with the remaining four players having played a total of 22 NHL games. But one of those players is Raphael Lavoie, who is a shoe-in to be a 20-goal scorer at minimum, if you ask any Oilers fans.
On defence, you have legends in Kris Letang, who can still play, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who is still playing.
Mike Matheson is another player who seems to have found an offensive spark lately, posting 55 points in his last 79 games, which is more than good enough for a top pairing spot.
Marco Scandella and Vinny Desharnais are probably more of a third pairing, but still good.
I could have gone with Simon Benoit on the third pairing, but I love a good brother connection and so Pierre-Olivier Joseph gets the spot instead.
In goal, you have a rookie Devon Levi who hasn’t quite met the heavy expectations the Buffalo Sabres placed on him, but has posted a 0.942 save percentage in his last four games, so still has the ability to turn it around.
Backup Kevin Mandolese has played a grand total of three NHL games in his career, and has been bouncing between the ECHL and AHL, so Levi is definitely going to need to step up here.
Deslauriers, Matheson, and Scandella all played for the Montreal Canadiens, but no other player has played for any Montreal-based organization.
Only two players, Lavoie and Desharnais, have played for the Oilers, the second least among the teams here.
Who would win?
We all know the games are played on ice, not paper, but something tells me we will never see these rosters together, let alone play each other. So paper is all we got.
My ranking of the teams is as follows:
- Team Vancouver
- Team Toronto
- Team Calgary
- Team Edmonton
- Team Montreal
- Team Winnipeg
- Team Ottawa
The top three seems pretty safe: Vancouver doesn’t have a single weakness, with arguably the best goalie here in Jarry, while on the flip side Toronto has good depth throughout but also has a goaltending problem. Calgary has possibly the best roster of top end players, including the best defenceman in the game in Makar, but the depth is a serious concern. Frankly, you could rearrange them in any order and you probably wouldn’t be wrong.
Edmonton over Montreal is a tough one, as Montreal also has higher end talent and the depth frankly isn’t any worse, but the fact Edmonton has two goalies that are better than Montreal’s (at least right now) carries the day. Also, this is an Oilers blog, so like, what did you expect?
Winnipeg beats out Ottawa based on the sheer fact that there isn’t a worry that if their goalie goes into the butterfly they may not be able to get back up again.
What do you all think? Any players I missed that you think should be on these teams? Disagree with my projected rankings? This was way too long of an article for a ridiculously stupid premise? Whatever you think, let us know!
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
