Nick Suzuki Has Made Team Canada’s Olympic Squad

After not being named to Team Canada last year, Suzuki took his game to another level and helped carry the Habs into the final playoff spot. Since the start of the 2025 calendar, Suzuki is 3rd among all Canadian players in points with 97, behind only Nathan MacKinnon (121) and Connor McDavid (115). Currently this season, he is tied for 15th in scoring throughout the league with 13 goals and 44 points in 39 games.

While he has proven that he can be among the top producers offensively, Suzuki is more likely to play a bottom-six role with Canada, as he is among the best two-way centres in the NHL today. He may not be one of the best faceoff guys in the league, but he makes up for it with his elite hockey IQ that allows him to read plays extremely well. One area in his own zone where Suzuki is really good is getting in position to force turnovers so many times that it’s his linemates that pick up the puck.

Not to mention, he is also a very solid shot blocker, which makes him very important for a team’s penalty kill. With the Canadiens, he isn’t getting a lot of penalty kill this year because they would rather he save his energy for power play time, and there are also other centres like Oliver Kapanen and Joe Veleno who can handle penalty kill time effectively. Essentially this is so that Suzuki doesn’t have to play 25 minutes every night, but with Canada, that won’t be an issue, as it’s highly unlikely he’ll get much power play time, if any at all, with the team’s star power.

With that being said, he is among the best defensive forwards on the team alongside guys like Brad Marchand, Mark Stone, Anthony Cirelli, Bo Horvat, and Mitch Marner. It wouldn’t be surprising to see some combination of these 6 players form 3 separate penalty kill duos for Canada.

Given that Suzuki isn’t the fastest skater, Stone likely wouldn’t be the greatest fit with him, as the duo would lack foot speed on the penalty kill. However, someone like Marner alongside Suzuki could make for a very dangerous PK duo that could also be an offensive threat.

It will be interesting to see if those two players play on a line together as there would be reason to believe the two could work well playing a solid 200-foot game. They could form 2/3 of an underrated 3rd line for Canada with another responsible two-way player.

Another positive with Suzuki is that he can be used on the wing pretty effectively and slot in next to someone like Horvat, which could prove to be an underrated duo between two centermen and possibly Marner, who will surely be given defensive responsibilities by Canada.

When discussing why he took Suzuki, Canada GM explained that the pressure he needs to deal with as the Habs captain is tremendous and he’s been doing an incredible job in helping a young group progress as a team. Despite being the 2nd youngest forward on the Canadian roster, Suzuki’s leadership seemed to play an impact on him getting the nod alongside his 200-foot game. The reality is Suzuki can play in any situation that is asked of him, which is why he fits on this team.

It will be interesting to see how Canada uses Suzuki, but one thing for sure is it will be nice to cheer on a Habs player in a Team Canada jersey at the Olympics once again.

Were you surprised to see Suzuki make Team Canada?