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Babcock says Stamkos will be on Team Canada Olympic roster

Steven Stamkos; Steve Downie

Tampa Bay Lightning’s Steven Stamkos, center, and Colorado Avalanche’s Steve Downie, left, arrive for collective bargaining talks in Toronto on Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012. Negotiations continue between the NHL and the NHLPA to avoid a potential lockout. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)

AP

Looks as though Steve Stamkos’ broken right tibia won’t keep him off the Canadian roster.

Team Canada head coach Mike Babcock said Stamkos will be on the 25-man list for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, according to Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. Stamkos broke his tibia in Monday’s 3-0 loss and will undergo surgery to repair it on Tuesday. It’s unclear how much time he’ll miss recovering.

Canada, the defending gold medalist, will have to submit its provisional rosters -- made up of 22 skaters and three goalies -- by Dec. 31.

Here’s more, from the IIHF:

All participating national associations will submit their “long lists” of rosters on October 1, 2013 (both men’s and women’s) while on the men’s side there will be an additional no-later-than December 31, 2013 deadline of submission of provisional 22 skaters and 3 goaltenders playing rosters. The October 1 “long lists” will not be made public.

The final and official playing rosters will be registered at the Olympic tournament directorate meetings, one day before the start of the respective events. On the women’s side the final roster registration will be on February 7, 2014, the men’s registration on February 11, 2014.

Canada could carry Stamkos on the roster right up until February, then make a decision on his ability to participate -- sort of like what it did in 2010 with Ryan Getzlaf and Jeff Carter. Getzlaf suffered an ankle injury just prior to the games; Carter, tabbed as Getzlaf’s fill-in, was so close to becoming a replacement player he was actually flown to Vancouver on GM Steve Yzerman’s orders.

Stamkos has represented Canada internationally at the junior and World Championship level, but never at the Olympics. He was named to Canada’s “stand-by” list for the ’10 games.

Here’s more on the tibia break, from Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos:

Early indication is #Lightning Stamkos didn’t suffer overly complicated break and Sochi Olympics isn’t out of question in 2nd week of Feb.

— Nick Kypreos (@RealKyper) November 11, 2013