Calgary born Mat Robinson joins Chris Lee as the only two members of Canada's Olympic hockey team without any NHL experience at all.
Both play defense.
While that may seem like an unenviable scenario, both Robinson and Lee are capable defenders. Okay, so they are not Drew Doughty or Alex Pietrangelo, but both will roles with Team Canada nicely.
Lee is a 37 year old veteran of international hockey, a true late bloomer. He is particularly adept at running the power play.
Robinson, an alum of the University of Alaska-Anchorage (he majored in natural sciences), but was never drafted by a NHL team. The 31 year old has played the last six seasons overseas, after just one season of minor league play here in North America. He has been playing for Moscow Dynamo for a few years, but has joined the famed CSKA Moscow team this season.
Many of Russia's top Olympic players play for CSKA. Defending against his regular-season teammates in practice every day will give Robinson a good book on the competition.
Robinson has previously played for Canada at the 2016 Deutschland Cup.
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