Hockey Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee will name the Olympic women’s hockey team on Friday afternoon, less than a month before the Canadians open the tournament against Finland on Feb. 5.
A dominant Canadian team took home gold in Beijing in 2022, breaking records along the way.
But the team will go into this year’s Winter Games in Italy as the underdog against a young, skilled American squad.
The Americans swept the Canadians at the recent four-game Rivalry Series, outscoring Canada 24-7 and looking more connected along the way. The U.S. roster was named on New Year’s Eve and is stacked with talent, from captain Hilary Knight and PWHL leading scorer Kendall Coyne Schofield, all the way to PWHL draft prospects such as Caroline Harvey, Abbey Murphy and Laila Edwards.
Canadian assistant captain Blayre Turnbull didn’t mince words about her team’s performance.
“The first three games of the Rivalry Series were really bad for our team,” Turnbull said last month. “I think the last game we started playing the right way, but I think we all understand there’s a lot of work left to do, which is good. I don’t think anyone on our team left that Rivalry Series feeling happy about where we’re at.”
The Olympics are a fresh slate and a grander stage. Turnbull said she still feels confident the Canadians can repeat as gold medallists.
Host Karissa Donkin and The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian give their predictions for what Canada’s women’s hockey roster could look like at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games.
Head coach Troy Ryan didn’t seem concerned, either.
“The message to the national team when we left [after the Rivalry Series] was understand the feelings you’re having right now and why they possibly happened, and make sure you’re building your habits and your details and your concepts with your PWHL team or your NCAA team so you’re setting this group up for success,” he said last month in Halifax.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Friday’s announcement:
The basics
While the men’s teams are allowed to bring 25 players to the Olympics, the women’s teams can only bring 23.
That means that Canadian GM Gina Kingsbury will need to make a few cuts from the 30 players who have been attending training camps throughout the season, and who competed at the Rivalry Series games last year. The roster will be announced at 3:30 p.m. ET in Toronto on Friday.
The team will once again be coached by Ryan, who led the Canadians to Olympic gold in 2022, along with three world championships. He’ll be joined by assistants Kori Cheverie (Montreal Victoire), Caroline Ouellette (Montreal Victoire/Concordia University), Britni Smith (Syracuse University) and goaltending consultant Brad Kirkwood (Toronto Sceptres).
Canada will compete in Group A against the United States, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Finland.
Germany, Japan, Italy, France and Sweden round out Group B.
A new way of building Team Canada
For years, the Canadian team was built through centralization, where Olympic hopefuls would live and train together for months in pursuit of one goal. That was always an advantage for Canada, and it’s where the team built chemistry.
That’s no longer possible with the PWHL. Instead of centralization, Hockey Canada held three training camps last fall in Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.
That, plus the four Rivalry Series games, was all the time Ryan and his staff had with athletes this season under the national-team umbrella. It means less time to work things out, which Canada certainly could have used after a difficult Rivalry Series.
How that impacts that team that goes to Italy remains to be seen.
“One thing that a few of us talked about the other day was just having centralization and being able to go through a lot of adversity together throughout a season is something that’s different,” Turnbull said in December. “But I think we just got hit with that adversity through the Rivalry Series.”
On the flip side, the PWHL has offered a new platform for players to showcase why they belong on the national team.
Players like Daryl Watts, Sophie Jaques and Kati Tabin have already used that to their advantage. Their performance in the league forced the Canadian team to take a closer look at them.
Familiar faces up front
At forward, a lot of familiar names should be locks for Team Canada, including captain Marie-Philip Poulin, Sarah Fillier, Turnbull, Laura Stacey, Emma Maltais, Brianne Jenner and Emily Clark.
In 2022, Stacey was a depth player on Canada’s fourth line. Now, she’s poised to log top-line minutes as one of the best power forwards in women’s hockey.
Maltais, who often played with Stacey on the fourth line in 2022, should also see a bigger workload in Italy. She’s a do-everything type of forward who Ryan can move up and down the lineup.
Watts is likely to get the call for her first Olympics, as one of the most productive forwards in the PWHL. Only Poulin has recorded more points since the league’s creation in 2024.
It’s at the bottom of the forward group where things are a bit more up in the air. There are perhaps only three spots up for grabs, with several forwards in the running. You should be able to write Kristin O’Neill’s name in pen. She’s carved out a role as a faceoff specialist and hard-to-play-against fourth-line centre.
Jennifer Gardiner, Julia Gosling, Danielle Serdachny, Natalie Spooner and Caitlin Kraemer are all candidates for the final spots.
Hannah Miller is also in the picture, though it’s not yet clear if the International Ice Hockey Federation has ruled on an appeal that argues Miller should be eligible to play for Canada. Miller played with the Chinese team at the 2022 Olympics.
If she’s healthy, it’s safe to say that Sarah Nurse will be on Team Canada. But the Vancouver Goldeneyes forward has only played in one PWHL game this season, and is still on long-term injured reserve. She scored the Goldeneyes’ first franchise goal in that game.
Vancouver head coach Brian Idalski told The Canadian Press this week that Nurse would be re-evaluated in a couple of weeks.
That doesn’t leave much time for Nurse to get back into game action before the Olympics. The Goldeneyes’ last game before the Olympic break is on Jan. 28, less than three weeks away.
“I’m sure Hockey Canada would like to see her in a few games before the Olympics and we’re eager to get her back as soon as possible,” Idalski said. “But we want to make sure we’re doing right by her and that she’s not yo-yoing, dealing with something for the full season, that we get it taken care of now.”
Canada could name Nurse to its roster and then replace her before the tournament begins, should she be unable to compete.
Roster battles on defence
Only the third goaltender spot for Canada is in play, with 2022 gold medallists, Ann-Renée Desbiens and Emerance Maschmeyer, locked in at one and two. Desbiens has never lost a game at the Olympics, and she’ll be Canada’s starter in the team’s quest to repeat as Olympic champions.
The competition for the third goaltending spot is between University of Minnesota Duluth’s Ève Gascon and New York Sirens starter Kayle Osborne, two players who should be a big part of Canada’s future in net.
Gascon performed slightly better at the Rivalry Series and has had a great NCAA season.
But Osborne has proved her mettle against the best in the world in the PWHL, starting every single one of New York’s games this season. She’s allowed fewer than two goals per game, and is tied with Boston’s Aerin Frankel with three shutouts, all under the league’s biggest workload. That should give Osborne an edge.
You can lock in four returning defenders from the 2022 team: Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose, Ella Shelton and Claire Thompson.
After that, things get interesting. Veteran Jocelyne Larocque has been a steady force for Canada over the last decade, and the Canadian staff know what they’re getting with her.
Jocelyne Larocque, 37, and 18-year-old Chloe Primerano are both fighting for a spot on defence on Canada’s Olympic team.
Should she make her fourth Olympic team, Ryan could pair her beside an Olympic rookie like 19-year-old Chloe Primerano or two-time Walter Cup champion, Jaques.
New York Sirens’ captain Micah Zandee-Hart, and two Montreal Victoire teammates, Tabin and Nicole Gosling, have also been part of the Canadian training camp and could get a call.
