Will Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos be a part of Canada's team at the Olympics? (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The brain trust for Canada's Olympic men's hockey team will meet Sunday in Chicago in a session that will go a long way to determine who makes the squad, CBC Hockey Night in Canada contributor Pierre LeBrun told the Hotstove segment on Saturday night.

The announcement of the 23-man roster will take place during the world junior hockey championship on Dec. 30 in Saskatoon.

"This is a pretty big meeting," LeBrun said of Sunday's gathering. "They're going to try to dwindle down this list, so they get to Saskatoon and have fewer questions."

Trying to trim the list is a daunting task, given the depth of Canadian-born players in the NHL.

One of the concerns about the 2006 Team Canada that finished out of the medals at the Turin Games was a lack of Olympic experience, HNIC contributor Elliotte Friedman said. Thirteen players on that team were playing in their first Olympics.

The Team Canada brass, led by executive director Steve Yzerman, will have to be creative in order to fit the positional demands of the team.

"They're concerned about taking a bunch of centres and playing as wingers for the first time in their careers," LeBrun said. "A guy like Brad Richards, who can play wing and centre, could be a good fit."

Richards, who played for Canada in 2006, has 37 points in 32 games so far this season with Dallas. But he wasn't invited to Canada's training camp in the summer, likely due to his poor offensive production last year.

Forty-six players were invited to the summer training camp in Calgary, but the final team could include players who weren't on that preliminary list — such as Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos, who has 20 goals in 35 games so far this season, or Boston's Patrice Bergeron.

Yzerman was in Chicago Friday night for the Blackhawks-Bruins game. Boston head coach Claude Julien is pushing for [Bergeron] because he's so versatile, Friedman said.

As for the defence, according to LeBrun, there are two locks to make the team — Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger.

Left-shooting defencemen are harder to find than right-handed shots, so that, combined with his wealth of international experience, gives Niedermayer a significant edge over most of the players in the pool, LeBrun said.

"He's likely to be named captain."