BOSTON — Hall of Fame coach Frank Carroll said two-time U.S. champion Ashley Wagner should be selected to the U.S. Olympic team even if she finishes outside the top three at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Saturday night.

Carroll’s comments Friday on the eve of the women’s free skate at TD Garden added to an increasingly heated debate over a U.S. Figure Skating rule that allows a selection committee to select to the Olympic team skaters who finished lower than the allotted spots in the different categories. The U.S. women have three spots for Sochi; the team will be announced Sunday.

“They left that room so they that they can pick someone who they felt has had a really good track record and who may not perform particularly well on that night. I think it’s fine,” Carroll said. “I have no problem with it. I think we should send our very best skaters and the very best people we have.”

And to Carroll the best two American women’s skaters are Wagner, 22, and Gracie Gold, 18, Carroll’s latest protégée. Wagner last year became the first woman to successfully defend the U.S. title since Michelle Kwan in 1995. She was also fifth at the 2013 World Championships. Gold, the leader going into Saturday’s competition, was second to Wagner at the 2013 U.S. Championships and sixth at last year’s Worlds.

So should Wagner, fourth after the short program, receive a ticket to Sochi if she fails to make the top three spots on the medal podium?

“Yes,” Carroll said.

But David Glynn, coach of Polina Edmunds, 15, the U.S. junior champion currently in second place, insists the top three finishers Saturday night should make the team. Period.

“I think U.S. Figure Skating would have a hard time not naming the top three as the three Olympic spots,” said Glynn, another Carroll protégée. “I think it would be very hard for them to face the media having made that decision so I don’t anticipate that being a problem.”