Josh Ho-Sang might be the best story this year; Doan, Julien, Spezza touch on his Olympic selection
Hockey Canada announced it's 2022 Olympic Men's Hockey roster on Tuesday, confirming what many Leafs had expected after Monday's mistaken roster leak by the IIHF, and that is that Toronto Marlies winger Josh Ho-Sang has been selected to represent Canada in Beijing next month.
What a wild couple of years it has been for Ho-Sang, bouncing from the American Hockey League to the NHL, back to the AHL, over to Sweden and back to the AHL. Over the course of the last 4 seasons, Ho-Sang has played for 6 teams, with the cloud of "attitude issues" hanging over his head most of the way. However, the 26-year-old has remained steadfast that he has what it takes to be an impact player, no matter where he plays.
After being cut from two separate teams in Sweden, Ho-Sang took his disappointing stint abroad as a wake-up call that if he wanted to make the most of his pro hockey career, he'd have to make some changes, shift his perception and take a good hard look at what he could do, within the realm of his own control, to turn things around for himself.
After competing for a roster spot with the Toronto Maple Leafs in training camp this fall, Ho-Sang had come up just short of an NHL opportunity, and while he likely could have had one elsewhere, the hometown kid elected to accept an AHL contract to remain in Toronto, playing for the Leafs' AHL affiliate Toronto Marlies to (hopefully) work his way up the system and back onto an NHL roster, on his own terms, for his hometown team. That determination, combined with his strong play, work ethic and his newfound humble persona, has endeared him to Maple Leafs fans and has landed him this unique opportunity and a chance at an Olympic gold medal.
Team Canada GM Shane Doan had a chance to speak with the media on Tuesday and had nothing but great things to say about Ho-Sang, but one interesting tidbit that he shared is that his GM's in recent years have given him glowing reviews.
"Incredible skill," Doan said of Ho-Sang. "You watch him move around the ice, it's so valuable. I talked to a few of his GMs in the last couple years & the way he has grown as a person, they all rave about him.. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do."
Canada's head coach, Claude Julien, was also very complimentary of Ho-Sang's abilities on the ice. It's unclear how the veteran bench boss plans to utilize the Toronto-born winger, but it's always a good thing when the coach recognizes your "undeniable talent".
As for Ho-Sang's teammates and and players within the organization, they're thrilled to see the playmaker land himself such a wonderful opportunity to represent his country at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Jason Spezza is among the players who have expressed great pride in watching the once polarizing winger flourish.
"We're proud of him of him, he's a guy that's worked hard to change the narrative around his game," said Spezza of Ho-Sang, with whom he had put in extensive work during training camp.
Ho-Sang has earned this and along with the pride that his teammates, family and friends feel for him now, the 26-year-old should be and probably is very proud of himself as well. Congrats to Josh on this amazing opportunity, and we'll all be cheering him on next month as Team Canada tries to bring home some hardware in Beijing.
