Who will be Canada’s goalies at the Olympics? 

The first Olympic Games that will include NHL players since 2014 are right around the corner in February, and this year’s 4 Nations Face-Off has hockey fans champing at the bit for more international best-on-best.

Team Canada will be defending both the 2014 gold medal and the 4 Nations championship, but a big question mark for the team is the goaltending situation.

Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues thrived last February, outdueling Team USA’s Connor Hellebuyck in the championship game, making him the clear-cut frontrunner for the starting job. Binnington has struggled mightily to start the season though, calling the status of the job into question.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Kevin Woodley of NHL.com and InGoal Magazine to discuss Hockey Canada’s options for their starting netminder in February as they look to capture a gold medal.

Carter Hutton: As you look at Canada’s goaltending situation, they don’t have a goalie from their 4 Nations Cup with a save percentage over .900. Who is going to be Canada’s goalie, and is there anybody that’s on your radar?

Kevin Woodley: I still think Binnington’s going to be there just because of what he did at the 4 Nations, and the reality is last year his numbers… slipped, but in the previous five, six seasons, he was the best goalie relative to environment, like top 10 in the league and Canada’s best by a long shot, so he’s absolutely on that team. The only way he’s not the starter is if it falls off a cliff. Well it’s kind of fallen off a cliff early in this season. 66 goalies in the league have seen 50+ chances this year, and his adjusted save percentage ranks 65th. Sam Montembeault’s 61st. Adin Hill’s in the 50s, and he’s hurt… So there are a lot of question marks, but there are answers available. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Logan Thompson at +3.5% relative to environment leads the entire NHL among goalies that have seen at least a couple hundred chances.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…