As Team Canada assembles its roster for the four-nation face-off in February, decision-makers are looking far beyond the box scores when considering which players will complement the star-studded group.

During an appearance on the “Real Kyper & Bourne” radio show on Wednesday, Doug Armstrong, general manager of the Canadian 2026 Olympic team, said the leadership group watched between 160 and 180 live games in total to make their final roster decisions.

Armstrong added that Canada’s coaches – Jon Cooper, Rick Tocchet, Bruce Cassidy and Peter DeBoer – are now involved in the process.

“What I learned under Steve Yzerman is that when you’re picking, say, the final four or five players on the roster, you don’t want to drive a square peg into a round hole. “That’s a style of player,” Armstrong said. “So we definitely need the coaches to understand why we use these players the way we have them and make sure they see the same value in them.”

With forwards Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Connor McDavid and Brayden Point, as well as defenseman Cale Makar already on the roster, Canada will certainly have enough offensive power to win the tournament when the squad is assembled at 6 on December 4th on Sportsnet at 3:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT.

However, the additional 14 skaters earning a spot are due to the combination of their team fitness and skill.

“The elite players in the game play (in) so many situations,” Armstrong said. “But we’re not just going to go to the stat sheet this year and say, ‘Give us the 13 highest-scoring forwards, the 13 highest-scoring defensemen, and we’ll call that our team.’

“We want to build a team… we want to share our vision with the coaches and say, ‘Okay, this is the synergy, why we see this synergy, why we see this player complementing this player and get their input on that.’ .’”

One problem Armstrong identified that comes with a tournament as short as the 4 Nations Face-Off is the length – just over a week – and the limitation on the ability to gel as a team.

“We hope they can build that synergy quickly, and when you have someone like Sidney Crosby as your leader, it’s easy for everyone to ask him for advice and join him,” Armstrong said. “We’re lucky to have him.”

While picking just 20 skaters to make it through Canada’s final cut won’t be an easy task, there may be no greater dilemma for Armstrong than who will carry the maple leaf between the pipes.

Armstrong noted that the days of deciding “who’s going to support Carey (Price)” are over, but pointed out that the success of Canadian goaltenders in the Stanley Cup playoffs is something that hockey fans north of the border care about can hold on.

“There really isn’t an alpha male goalie in Canada right now. I kind of laugh, the Canadians and the Americans make the toughest (goalie) decisions for different reasons,” the president of hockey operations and general manager of the St. Louis Blues said. “One of the statistics – if you dig deep enough you can always find something to sell – is that I think it’s been the last 10 Stanley Cups where either a Canadian or a Russian goalie has won it, and Russia not in this tournament.”

Regardless of who will wear the red and white in February, Armstrong and the rest of Canada’s senior leadership team will have their hands full with just five days until the December 2nd roster submission deadline.