Hockey Canada hasn't had many gold medals to celebrate this year. The Canadian men's World Championship roster has veterans and stars to try to win it all.
One day after Team USA unveiled its roster for this month's World Championship, Team Canada did the same.
But rather than do what the Americans did and stock their lineup with young players they hope to develop into long-term puzzle pieces, the Canadians went for the jugular by putting out a veteran-laden roster. That should make them a strong contender to win the tournament, scheduled for May 15 to 31 in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland.
The U.S. is sending a team filled with youngsters, including 19-year-old Nashville Predators right winger Ryker Lee, 21-year-old Washington Capitals right winger Ryan Leonard and 19-year-old Boston Bruins center James Hagens. The American team braintrust clearly believes in the value of developing players into contributors they can count on in many best-on-best tournaments to come.
But while Canada is doing a bit of that, their roster features many more veterans aiming to do their best to win the World Championship and come out of 2025-26 with a gold medal.
Canada picked 35-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares, 32-year-old Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly, 38-year-old Detroit Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot and 33-year-old Winnipeg Jets center Mark Scheifele.
They also picked 35-year-old Predators center Ryan O'Reilly, 33-year-old Jets defenseman Dylan Demelo, 32-year-old New Jersey Devils right winger Connor Brown and 31-year-old Edmonton Oilers blueliner Darnell Nurse.
Yes, there are some youngsters Canada also wants to develop with experience in a high-stakes tournament like the World Championship, including 19-year-old San Jose Sharks star center Macklin Celebrini, 21-year-old Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Denton Mateychuk, 19-year-old Sharks D-man Sam Dickinson, 21-year-old Bruins center Fraser Minten and 20-year-old Red Wings left winger Emmitt Finnie.
However, the Canadians have some of the best talent in this tournament, and that's without all the potential possibilities Team Canada management had to choose from – at least, in theory.
New York Islanders right winger Mathew Barzal, Ottawa Senators center Dylan Cozens, Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard and St. Louis Blues center Robert Thomas are all outstanding players.
When you add them to a group that includes experienced hands in O'Reilly, Scheifele and Tavares and the pure star power of Celebrini, you wind up with a group that is not there just to experience another high-end tournament. They're there to win the thing.
The Canadians' picture in net is somewhat murky, with Talbot, Blue Jackets starting goalie Jet Greaves and University of Michigan netminder Jack Ivankovic being the choices for goaltender. But if Ivankovic winds up seeing any action, it will mean things have gone very wrong for Greaves and Talbot.
In any case, Team Canada's primary motivation is to overwhelm the other World Championship teams with their high-end skills and all-around depth. They certainly have enough talent to be considered the favorite over the U.S. at this tournament. But it's now on coach Misha Donskov to make all the puzzle pieces fit in together.
The stakes are sky-high at this year's World Championship, with the U.S. looking to put the bow on a golden year. The men's and women's teams won Olympic gold, and the Para hockey team won Paralympic gold. Team USA also won the U-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup for the first time in 12 years, the World Women's Under-18 championship in January and the Jr. A World Challenge. The men's team even ended a gold medal drought at last year's World Championship.
But from Canada's perspective, the stakes are just as high, if not higher.
They lost to Denmark in the quarterfinals of last year's World Championship despite having Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Celebrini, Brandon Montour, Travis Konecny, O'Reilly and more veterans.
They then finished third at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and world juniors, got silver at the World Women's U-18s, earned silver at the Olympics in men's and women's hockey, added silver at the Paralympics and lost in the quarterfinals at the World Men's U-18s.
Team Canada Red did win the U-17 World Challenge over Canada White, but otherwise, the country could use a gold medal in hockey this month.
Hockey Canada is clearly relying on experience in this World Championship. We'll find out soon if the Canadian approach to winning this tournament will pay off with a gold medal of their own.
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