With the 2026 Olympics in the books, Hockey Canada will be looking at their pool of players for the women's national team, opening the door for healthy competition, and for new faces to to claim a spot as part of Team Canada's future.
Canada fielded the oldest roster, by far, at the 2026 Olympic women's hockey tournament. It was a hotly discussed point in Canada's silver medal run, following to a young, faster, more skilled American roster.
USA identified a group of young stars at the beginning of this Olympic cycle, and fostered their development, placing those youth in positions to thrive. In the end, it was NCAA players including Caroline Harvey, who was named the tournament MVP, Best Defender, co-leading scorer, and All-Star, and tournament All-Star Laila Edwards who drove USA's success.
Canada has an abundance of young talent, but they've been held back and not given similar opportunities to develop beyond the U-18 level within Hockey Canada's program.
Canadian's got a glimpse of a trio of young players this season at the Rivalry Series as Team Canada gave auditions to forward Caitlin Kraemer, defender Chloe Primerano, and goaltender Eve Gascon. Primerano and Gascon also played for Canada at the 2025 World Championships.
All three will be key contributors for Canada in the future.
Primerano has had a slight sophomore slump with Minnesota, but remains one of the brightest prospects in the world for her physicality, and offensive upside. What's becoming more clear, is that the jump from college to pro, and to the North American national teams is becoming larger, and even for a player of Primerano's calibre, defending against USA, and finding ways to be offensively effective against the Americans is a challenge.
Kraemer remains Minnesota-Duluth's best forward, but it would not be unfathomable to see her consider a transfer. Not because UMD isn't a stellar program, but because she's not surrounded by the same calibre of stars, and not able to play the same kind of offensive game that players at other programs are enjoying.
Eve Gascon remains Canada's goaltender of the future in a position where Canada has solid depth both professionally, and climbing the ranks.
Maxine Cimeroni, Stryker Zablocki, and Sara Manness will be part of Canada's futureBeyond this trio, there is reason to hope for Canada. Two of those reasons, Sara Manness and Stryker Zablocki, could be making an impact with Canada as soon as next season.
Manness finished her season with 52 points in 35 games. It's the most of any NCAA rookie since 2018, which means she outscored players like Tessa Janecke, Laila Edwards, Caroline Harvey, Kirsten Simms, Joy Dunne, and Haley Winn, who all won gold at the 2026 Olympics with USA. In 2018, an NCAA rookie named Alina Muller had 51 points. The most recent to outscore Manness was Sarah Fillier, who finished her rookie season with 57 points for Princeton in 2018-2019.
Perhaps ahead of even Manness on Canada's depth chart is electrifying Northeastern rookie Stryker Zablocki. She's the leading scorer on the fifth ranked team in the nation with 18 goals and 42 points in 34 games. Zablocki plays with game breaking speed, and is exactly the type of high octane offensive player who can go head to head with the United States.
Beyond this duo, fellow NCAA rookie Maxine Cimeroni had a stellar campaign with Ohio State scoring 32 points in 34 games as a rookie. She's benefitting from playing with another Canadian prospect in the NCAA, Jocelyn Amos, who is Ohio State's captain and an offensive leader playing alongside Olympians Joy Dunne, Hilda Svensson, and Sanni Vanhanen up front. The entire group will return next season, which will benefit Canada's prospects. Canada has four more U-18 national team members heading to Ohio State next season as well.
Canadians should also be excited to watch the progress of Princeton's Mackenzie Alexander and Issy Wunder. Wunder is a big bodied power forward who will be a two two-round pick in the 2026 PWHL Draft. Alongside pros like Abby Hustler, Danielle Serdachny, Sarah Wozniewicz, and Anne Cherkowski, she could soon be infusing her skill and power to Canada's national team.
Others to watch up front in the NCAA include Kahlen Lamarche, who is the only player in NCAA hockey this season to hit the 30 goal mark, with 35, aside from USA's Abbey Murphy. Emma Pais is another top Canadian prospect playing for Colgate, where she'll enter her senior season next year. Claire Murdoch had a tough season offensively, but continues her strong play at UConn as well.
Right now however, part of Canada's issue has become looking for one type of player only, and not broadening their net to invite more players into the mix to develop, and give them the confidence to play with something to prove. There are plenty of forwards in the NCAA worthy of a look this summer with Canada's national development program.
Looking younger, Canada will see other top prospects like Adrianna Milani, who is fast tracking to the NCAA, along with Sofia Ismael, and defender Megan Mossey.
Mossey might be Canada's top prospect on the blueline.
NCAA rookie Danica Maynard is small, but brings dynamic skating, puck control, and offensive upside. She'll be one to watch as she moves up to Canada's national development team. Kate Manness is another NCAA rookie who had a nearly point per game pace at Clarkson. The duo finished in the top five in NCAA scoring this season, trailing only seniors and American national team members Caroline Harvey and Laila Edwards.
They're joined by Wisconsin blueliners Ava Murphy and Emma Venusio as potential future national team members, although neither have emerged with the same offensive upside as expected entering college. Piper Grober (Cornell), and Makayla Watson (Quinnipiac) are another pair to watch.
Canada also has a sizeable pool of blueline prospects already in the PWHL headlined by Kendall Cooper, and national team experienced players like Ashton Bell, Micah-Zandee Hart, and Nicole Gosling. Cooper brings a puck moving style that brings speed, and tenacity, that would help combat USA.
More than anything, Canada needs to bring a significantly larger pool of players together early, and give everyone an equal chance to prove they belong, and win a roster spot.
Finally, Canada's crease will not only see Gascon, and current national team member Kayle Osborne in the running for future roles, but will see current pros like Corinne Schroeder and Hannah Murphy get consideration. It won't stop there from the PWHL if younger goaltenders like Raygan Kirk, or any other who enters the league can make their mark.
Beyond the PWHL, NCAA rookie Rhyah Stewart is Canada's top prospect. The Wisconsin netminder will have one more season fighting it out with Ava McNaughton before she takes over as their starter. The other netminder to watch is Minnesota's Hannah Clark, who was also a member of Canada's national development team this summer.
Canada has a wealth of players that could help their national team, now or in the not-so-distant future. Bringing them in immediately this offseason for a development camp, to give them better resources and tools, and to show them that the door is now wide open to challenge for a roster spot with Team Canada.