Canada invited 48 players to their national team camp in Quebec City ahead of the 2026 World Championships, but there were still a handful of notable omissions from Canada's camp that could earn a spot with the national team in the near future.
Canada invited 48 players to their national team selection camp ahead of the 2026 World Championships in November. It was a big step over the 30 players invited last summer for Canada's Olympic camp.
This time around, the roster included not only many of the PWHL's best, but also a strong contingent of NCAA players. It's the first for new general manager Daniele Sauvageau, and assistant general managers Mike Hirshfeld and Manon Rheaume in their leadership run.
But Canada's camp still had omissions, perhaps none more notable than Northeastern's Stryker Zablocki.
Zablocki plays the game with unbridled speed, a dangerous release, and unabashed enthusiasm. At the U-18 level, she was named Esso Cup MVP leading her Regina Rebels to a national championship. Then she spent a season lighting the lamp alongside NCAA stars like Nela Lopusanova, Bella Fanale, and Rae Mayer. She put her development on display with Canada's U-18 team leading the 2025 tournament in scoring, being named to the U-18 World Championship All-Star team, and earning Canada gold. In her first NCAA season, she was named Hockey East Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year leading the conference in scoring, as well as her Northeastern Huskies scoring 19 goals and 44 points in 39 games. She was the first rookie to lead Hockey East in scoring since national team top six forward Daryl Watts. What sets Zablocki apart from some in Canada's camp, is her ceiling. Zablocki could certainly use her speed in a checking role, but she's destined for Canada's top six at some point, because it's Zablocki's exact skill set that's being used against Canada by USA's current set of stars.
Canada did however, get it right bringing other young standouts including Sara Manness, Claire Murdoch, Abby Stonehouse, Caitlin Kraemer, Chloe Primerano, Rosalie Tremblay, and Hayley McDonald to camp. But they're certainly missing Zablocki in this mix.
Given who Canada brought to camp, perhaps the next most notable omissions were Abby Hustler, who will play this season with PWHL Hamilton, and Issy Wunder, who was the first Canadian forward selected in the 2026 PWHL Draft. Hustler outscored Emma Maltais, Emily Clark, Anne Cherkowski, Natalie Spooner, and Kristin O'Neill last season as a PWHL rookie, and she's got a physical edge to her game.
You could argue for several others to be worthy of an invite by Hockey Canada, but overall, Canada will enter this national team selection camp with a more complete, and more diverse representation of the nation's best players than any camp in recent seasons.
