If Shane Doan and Jarome Iginla want to sport the maple leaf at the Winter Olympics, they may first need to have their legs under them.
That's the stance of Team Canada general manger Sean Burke, who on Tuesday stated he's looking for full buy-in from the players he picks to compete in Pyeongchang.
"We want to look at all possibilities, but there has to be a long-term plan because it's going to very intense and it's going to be great hockey and guys are going to have to have a plan for the year," Burke said on a Tuesday conference call, according to Jonas Siegel of The Canadian Press.
Burke confirmed he has reached out to both Doan and Iginla, not only to gauge their Olympic interest, but to get a better idea of where each player stands for the coming season. Both Doan and Iginla are unrestricted free agents.
With the NHL sitting out the 2018 Winter Olympics, Burke is left to build a roster consisting of minor-league pros, Canadians competing in European leagues, and, as is the case with Doan and Iginla, NHL players not currently under contract.
"We just played games in August and the pace of these games and the intensity was very good and that's going to increase as we move along," Burke added. "So anybody that's going to play on this team, no matter what their pedigree or what they've done in the past, we're going to consider."
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