July 24, 2001
NR.070

CANADA'S MEN'S OLYMPIC TEAM INVITES 34 PLAYERS TO ORIENTATION SESSION IN SEPTEMBER

CALGARY, AB -Wayne Gretzky, Team Canada's 2002 Olympic Team Executive Director along with CHA President Bob Nicholson and the rest of Team Canada's management and coaching staff, announced Tuesday, a list of 34 Canadian National Hockey League players that have been invited to attend an orientation session in Calgary, AB in September.

The orientation session will be held September 4-7 at the CHA's head office in Calgary, Alberta at the Father David Bauer Olympic Arena, with September 4 and 7th being travel days.

The orientation session will consist of providing the players with detailed information regarding the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, including a review of: Olympic preparations, tournament schedule and format, travel and lodging, doping policies, game tickets, coaching philosophies and apparel and equipment fitting

Optional ice time will be available on a daily basis for the players throughout the orientation session. " Our management and coaching staff feels that it is very important to have our players get together prior to the start of the NHL season," said Wayne Gretzky. "We have a list of over 40 players who we are looking at for our team, but we felt that 34 players is a workable number for this session. There are a number of other players in contention for our team, and we will be looking at our whole list of players over the first three months of the season prior to making any final decisions."

All orientation session activities will be closed to the public, with media access to players available on a daily basis. The full orientation session schedule is not yet finalized, and will be available within the next two weeks.