Leading up to the selection of Team Canada for the 2014 Winter Olympics, Dan Hamhuis was like a puzzle piece on the side of the table.
With so many superb candidates for jobs on Canada's blueline, it was unclear whether or not he'd end up in the final picture for the Sochi Games. Would he be a good fit, or would he be one of those pieces that seemed to belong but didn't quite have the right dimensions?
As it turned out, Team Canada general manager Steve Yzerman and his staff found a spot for Hamhuis. They tapped him in as the final left-shooting defenceman, and, in the process, made a lot of hockey fans in Smithers, Prince George and Vancouver a little giddy.
Hamhuis -- or Hammy as he was known in these parts during his record-setting seasons with the Prince George Cougars -- may be a surprise Olympian to some but he'll likely prove to be of great value as Canada tries to repeat its gold-medal performance of four years ago.
The 31-year-old Smithers product, who suited up with the Cougars from 1998 to 2002 and now collects an NHL paycheque as a member of the Vancouver Canucks, was one of 25 guys named to Team Canada on Tuesday. On defence, Hamhuis joined Duncan Keith of the Chicago Blackhawks, P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens, Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester of the St. Louis Blues, Drew Doughty of the Los Angles Kings, Shea Weber of the Nashville Predators and Marc-Edouard Vlasic of the San Jose Sharks. Given the fact Keith, Subban, Pietrangelo, Bouwmeester, Doughty and Weber are six of the top-eight-scoring Canadian defenceman in the NHL, it's safe to say Hamhuis and Vlasic will be counted on for their defensive abilities, not their offensive ones. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Hamhuis paired with the right-shooting Weber, who was his teammate with the Nashville Predators for five seasons.
Hamhuis, who is married to Prince George girl Sarah (nee Griffin), will look good in a Team Canada uniform for several reasons. First, he can play a defence-oriented game but has the skills and mobility to create offensively when the opportunity presents itself. In 45 games this season, he has four goals, 14 points and a plus/minus rating of plus-10.
Then there's the fact Hamhuis has excellent chemistry with the man pegged by many people to be Team Canada's starting goaltender in Sochi, his Vancouver teammate Roberto Luongo.
Just as importantly, Hamhuis has already logged plenty of time in the national team program so he's no stranger to international play and its larger ice surfaces. Hammy played for Team Canada at the 2001 and 2002 world juniors and was on Canada's roster for four consecutive world championship tournaments, from 2006 to 2009. He was also on the 2013 team. In total -- junior and senior -- he has appeared in 50 games for Team Canada and has helped his country win one gold medal (2007), three silver medals (2002, 2008, 2009) and one bronze (2001).
With the Olympic team, Hamhuis will have the opportunity to play his game without the full glare of the spotlight in his face. Given the star-power in the Canadian lineup, he'll be able to quietly go about his business and maybe catch a few unsuspecting opponents with his open-ice hitting (longtime Cougars fans will remember with glee the lethal hip checks he used to dish out at the Multiplex). All in all, he'll be in the perfect situation to succeed.
Hamhuis will become the second Cougars graduate to play for his country at the Winter Olympics. The other was Eric Brewer, who was part of the 2002 team that skated to gold in Salt Lake City. Former Cats goalie Chris Mason was an alternate on 2010's championship team but saw no action.
For the upcoming Olympics, Feb. 7-23, Hamhuis was chosen for Team Canada duty ahead of other worthy candidates like Brent Seabrook of the Blackhawks, Dion Phaneuf of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Kris Letang of the Pittsburgh Penguins, which says a lot about what Yzerman and company think of his skill set. And let's remember that Yzerman, chief architect of Canada's gold-medal club in 2010, isn't known for making mistakes.
So Hamhuis, once a shy and skinny single-A bantam player who went unclaimed in the WHL draft and was later listed by the Cougars, will get the chance to write another chapter in his storybook career. Across the country -- and especially in Smithers, Prince George and Vancouver -- hockey fans will be watching him closely.
Hopefully, in the last glimpse we get of him on our television screens, he'll be somewhere in the middle of a raucous gold-medal celebration.
