Team Canada plans to hit the ground running at the 2026 world juniors. 

After two straight disappointing quarterfinal exits in the tournament, the Canadians head to Minnesota with a loaded roster that could get even better as they wait on a couple of NHLers still eligible to play.

Key to the program? A much smaller camp roster that will ideally see the staff cut just one goalie, one defenseman and one forward before the tourney. That's right; no 40-player camp to sift through.

"We go right into our first practice doing 5-on-5, neutral zone, PP, PK," said coach Dale Hunter. "So we can be more prepared to start on the 26th, plus the three exhibition games."

With the possibility that the team could still get a player such as Sam Dickinson from the San Jose Sharks, there is still a little wiggle room, but even without Dickinson (or Pittsburgh's Ben Kindel), this will be an intimidating lineup. The Sharks have already loaned out Michael Misa to Team Canada, while Calgary has sent Zayne Parekh and the Penguins Harrison Brunicke.

For the team's brass, there was a very specific kind of player they were looking for.

"First off, it's not an all-star team," said GM Alan Millar. "We have to build what is, really, a true team. The World Junior Championship is hard to win. There is a type of player and person you need to help you win at this level. As a group, you need to have a vision and mindset when it's the hardest, when you're playing those most important games.

"We build our team around skill, speed, smarts and sense, and compete," he added. "We prioritize hard skill over soft skill: players who are only good with time and space, that play on the perimeter and don't compete, don't help you win. We want players that play hard, get on the inside, finish their checks, go to the net and get into the hard areas."

Reacting To Hockey Canada's 2026 World Juniors Camp Roster Hockey Canada named 27 players to its world juniors camp roster on Monday, with Sharks, Flames and Penguins players getting loaned to the national squad.

Looking at the roster, there are a lot of those X-factor type of players: Kashawn Aitcheson, Brady Martin, Braeden Cootes, Caleb Desnoyers and Carter Bear, just to name a few.

Millar also noted that management wanted to "trust the process" in looking at which players had performed for national teams in other high-stakes tournaments, such as the World U-17 Challenge, the World Men's Under-18s and the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. Size, details, two-way play and special teams all matter. And, of course, the players have to be trustworthy, too.

"We want players who put the team first," he said. "Role acceptance. Coachable, with humility. We want hockey sense, and we want compete."

With big guns such as Misa, Gavin McKenna, Porter Martone and Michael Misa up front, scoring should not be an issue for the squad. But the key to Canada being a favorite heading into the tourney is that depth: imagine facing a fourth line featuring Martin, Cootes and Cole Reschny, for example. All NHL first-rounders, two of whom have already played NHL games.

Having Hunter as coach will also be a tremendous benefit for the Canadians. He has already won WJC gold, not to mention a lifetime's worth of OHL championships and Memorial Cups.

"You got to play with structure," Hunter said. "If you have no structure in your game, you will not win. And that's doing the right thing for the team: sometimes you got to pull out of a situation and play on the defensive side of the game and know when to go and when not to go."

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