Montreal Canadiens: Three Habs Who Will Play In Next Best On Best Tournament

Joel Armia

When thinking of great players on the Canadiens roster that deserve to represent their country on the biggest state, Joel Armia is not the first player that comes to mind. However, under this format, he is definitely one of the most likely players to be named to a roster next February.

First of all, with this being an NHL event, the Finnish pro leagues are not going to shut down to send players over to it. That means the rosters will be made up of NHL players only and Finland does not have hundreds of them to choose from.

This season, there have been 36 players from Finland play a game in the NHL and 32 of them would be considered regulars. Another 11 of them are defensemen which leaves a total pool of 21 forwards to choose from.

Finland will have impressive center depth with Sebastien Aho, Roope Hintz, Aleksander Barkov and Anton Lundell down the middle. There are a few high scoring wingers like Mikko Rantanen, Teuvo Teravainen and Patrik Laine, but the teams needs penalty killers as well.

Armia may not be putting up a lot of points this season, though he does have eight goals in just 33 games, and he is excellent defensively. Every sucessful team needs good defensive players and Armia would bring all kinds of that to Team Finland.

The fact his country does not have to worry about his cap hit just makes it an easier decision for them to take him on their team.