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Team USA Olympic coach Tony Granato: We have players 'who could play in the NHL'

USA TODAY Sports

The United States can’t use NHL players on its 2018 Olympic team in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February. But the Americans will have NHL talent.

Coach Tony Granato is sure of that fact after putting Olympic candidates through practices this week in preparation for this weekend’s Deutschland Cup in Augsburg, Germany.

“There are definitely players here who could play in the NHL,” Granato told USA TODAY Sports via cell phone from Germany.

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The American squad, which opens the Deutschland Cup against Slovakia at 10 a.