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December 30, 2009

Triple Play

While watching Canadian junior standout Taylor Hall dominate Slovakia on Tuesday, the TSN announcers joked about the possibility that Hall being named to Canada's Olympic team in 2010.

They were not serious, but it got me thinking: Has any junior player ever played in the Olympics the same year?

My old friend Lucas Aykroyd tells us that on six occasions players have represented their country at the World Juniors, World Championships and Olympics all in the same season: Kenny Jonsson, Darius Kasparaitis, Saku Koivu, Alexei Kovalev, Evgeni Malkin and Alexei Zhitnik.

Aykroyd tells us that there appears to be two players currently playing in the World Juniors who have the potential to join this rare club - Swiss players Lucas Sbisa and Roman Josi. Both were named to the Swiss Olympic team on Wednesday.

Slovakia's Tomas Tatar would be a popular addition to the Slovakian Olympic team, but he was not named to the provisional roster. He will need to be named as an injury replacement if he is to play there.

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