Canada's World Championship Team Brings Vets And Stars For One More Chance At Gold In 2025-26
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.
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Team USA is leaning on young players and some veteran grit to try to win back-to-back gold medals and develop U.S. team fixtures for many years to come.
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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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 1:47 PM.