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Brodeur, Heatley to defend World Championship crown
Canada named 22 of the alloted 23-man roster, leaving one spot open for debate.
(CP) -- Goaltender Martin Brodeur and young star Dany Heatley will lead two-time defending champion Canada at the IIHF world championships April 30 to May 15 in Austria.
A 22-man roster announced Monday by Hockey Canada was missing big names like Mario Lemieux, Joe Sakic and Jarome Iginla, while featuring some new faces to top-level international competition.
They include forward Mike Fisher and defenceman Chris Phillips of the Ottawa Senators and defenceman Sheldon Souray of the Montreal Canadiens.
Each team is allowed to name 23 players to its roster, so the Canadian team is holding one spot open. It wasn't immediately known why.
Columns: Net worth | Defence depth
Brodeur, of the New Jersey Devils, backstopped Canada to gold medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.
He is backed up by Roberto Luongo of the Florida Panthers, who was in goal for world championship wins in 2003 in Finland and 2004 in the Czech Republic, and Marty Turco of the Dallas Stars.
Obviously the open spot is being reserved for Todd Bertuzzi if he's able to play.
Dave Millar
Well, it's no World Cup team but I think anything less than gold would be disappointing.
Aaron
Hey, considering who said no to this team, this looks alright! GO GET EM!
Hawky
The defence has four players returning from last fall's World Cup squad -- Wade Redden of Ottawa, Robyn Regehr of the Calgary Flames, Ed Jovanovski of the Vancouver Canucks and Scott Hannan of the San Jose Sharks.
Also on defence are Phillips, Souray and Dan Boyle of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Missing from the blue-line this time around are veterans like Scott Niedermayer, Chris Pronger and Rob Blake.
Nine of the 13 World Cup forwards are going to Austria, including Heatley of the Atlanta Thrashers -- the MVP of last year's world championships -- Shane Doan of the Phoenix Coyotes, Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby of the Detroit Red Wings, Simon Gagne of the Philadelphia Flyers, Patrick Marleau of San Jose, Brenden Morrow of Dallas, Ryan Smyth of the Edmonton Oilers and Joe Thornton of the Boston Bruins.
Other forwards are Brendan Morrison of the Vancouver Canucks, who led the Swedish league in scoring this season, Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Fisher.
National team head coach Mark Habscheid will be behind the bench. Canada opens the tournament April 30 against Latvia.
Team Canada roster
Forwards
Shane Doan
Kris Draper
Mike Fisher
Simon Gagne
Dany Heatley
Kirk Maltby
Patrick Marleau
Brendan Morrison
Brendan Morrow
Rick Nash
Ryan Smyth
Joe Thornton
Defenceman
Dan Boyle
Scott Hannan
Ed Jovanovski
Chris Phillips
Wade Redden
Robyn Regehr
Sheldon Souray
Goaltenders
Martin Brodeur
Roberto Luongo
Marty Turco
So it's almost like the "B" team but I think that we are still going to rock at the world cup, depending of course on what teams the other countries send. We can pretty well count out Sweden, no one is playing for them, what do you think folks!