Team Canada Announces Road to Italy Training Roster

We're just six months away from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, which means it's time for everyone's favourite game: Who will make the Olympic rosters?

Team Canada has already started the discussion, naming 30 players to their training roster ahead of the training camp being held August 26-28 in Calgary. They'll have to get their roster down to 23 players before they head to Italy.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this roster is that it is not the definitive list of players who can make the final Olympic team. Now that the team no longer uses a centralization approach, the first couple of months of the season can be a great try-out for any Canadian player in the PWHL, NCAA, or international leagues to prove that they deserve a shot at an Olympic gold medal.

As we get closer to the season, let's take a look at who's been invited, and maybe more importantly, who hasn't.

The Forwards:

Hockey Canada has invited the following forwards to the camp:

Laura Stacey (Victoire, PWHL)
Caitlin Kramer (University of Minnesota Duluth, NCAA)
Sarah Fillier (Sirens, PWHL)
Brianne Jenner (Charge, PWHL)
Sarah Nurse (Vancouver, PWHL)
Natalie Spooner (Sceptres, PWHL)
Emily Clark (Charge, PWHL)
Emma Maltais (Sceptres, PWHL)
Marie-Philip Poulin (Victoire, PWHL)
Hannah Miller* (Vancouver, PWHL)
Blayre Turnbull (Sceptres, PWHL)
Kristin O'Neill (Sirens, PWHL)
Julia Gosling (Seattle, PWHL)
Danielle Serdachny (Seattle, PWHL)
Jennifer Gardiner (Vancouver, PWHL)
Daryl Watts (Sceptres, PWHL)

There's not a ton of surprise here with the forwards. We've seen all of these players represent Team Canada at some level. Caitlin Kramer will attempt to make her first senior national team at just 19 years of age. She's one of three NCAA players invited to the camp.

Hannah Miller will be a question mark; she is still awaiting approvals from the IIHF to return to play for Canada at the international level, rather than China, where she has played in the past.

A couple of notable names that are missing: Michela Cava (Vancouver, PWHL) and Jessie Eldridge (Seattle, PWHL).

The Defenders:

Hockey Canada has invited the following defenders to the camp:

Sophie Jaques (Vancouver, PWHL)
Jocelyne Larocque (Charge, PWHL)
Chloe Primerano (University of Minnesota, NCAA)
Kati Tabin (Victoire, PWHL)
Renata Fast (Sceptres, PWHL)
Ella Shelton (Sceptres, PWHL)
Erin Ambrose (Victoire, PWHL)
Micah Zandee-Hart (Sirens, PWHL)
Claire Thompson (Vancouver, PWHL)
Nicole Gosling (Victoire, PWHL)

It's exciting to see Kati Tabin get named to this roster. She's the only player invited who has never played for Team Canada, but after two good seasons with the Victoire, it's nice to see her on their radar. She was a strong player in the PHF, but a lot of those players never got the same look at the National team as the PWHPA players did.

They've also invited Chloe Primerano, the youngest player on the roster, who will look to make her first Olympic team at just 18 years old.

Depending on how things go this season, the pairings of Shelton and Fast in Toronto and Thompson and Jaques in Vancouver could prove to be two solid pairings for the team when they face off in Italy.

Notable players absent from the list: Ashton Bell (Vancouver, PWHL)

The Goaltenders:

Hockey Canada has invited the following goaltenders to the camp:

Éve Gascon (University of Minnesota Duluth, NCAA)
Ann-Renée Desbiens (Victoire, PWHL)
Emerance Maschmeyer (Vancouver, PWHL)
Kayle Osborne (Sirens, PWHL)

With Maschmeyer injured last season, Team Canada brought Gascon to the World Championships. She's the top young goaltender that Team Canada has, and it's exciting to see her getting more opportunities. Whether or not she'll make the final roster, it'll be great for her to get the experience of the camp at just 22.

There are a few shocks on this list for me, and I'll elaborate on my feelings shortly, but notably, Osborne is on the list here over some pretty darn good goaltenders, including those who already have experience playing for Team Canada on the senior team. Osborne did play for Canada at the U18 level, playing just two games.

If Maschmeyer and Desbiens are healthy, they'll be the surefire starters.

Notable players not on the list: Kristen Campbell (Vancouver, PWHL) and Corinne Schroeder (Seattle, PWHL).

My thoughts:

This is a weird roster to me. I understand that it's not the final roster and that other players may have a chance to prove themselves as the year goes on, but there are some decisions here that I don't agree with.

Firstly, the camp serves two purposes, which makes it slightly difficult to achieve either of them. The first is to let the players get used to playing together again and start to get some chemistry going. That means that you need to bring players who you know will be on the team, like Poulin, Spooner, Ambrose, Fast, and Desbiens. The second is to get a better feel for some of the new players who aren't shoe-ins for the roster, like Tabin, both Goslings, Kraemer, Primerano, etc.

The issue here is that you now don't have room for the players that you really aren't sure about, the ones who didn't make this list, like Cava, Eldridge, Bell, Campbell, Schroeder, etc. In my mind, you'd rather see these players get a shot on the Olympic-sized ice with some of their potential teammates. But they didn't bring these players.

You almost need to have an identification camp early on for these names that you're unsure about, and then the further camps as we get closer to the actual Olympics, where the nearly-formed team can start practicing together. Hockey Canada has announced that these players will take part in other events through the 2025-26 season, but it puts the decision-makers in a difficult position.

The biggest surprise for me is the goaltending situation. The decision to bring Osborne to camp was a shock. I'm not sure she was on a lot of people's lists for the Olympics. In her rookie season, she played 10 games for the Sirens, winning 2 and putting up a 2.22 GAA and a .916 save percentage. Now, the Sirens were the worst team in the league last season, no matter who was in net, but I don't really think she had a chance to prove that she was national team material. She was not on the World Championship roster, and she has very little experience playing with Team Canada on the whole.

Canada does have two other goaltenders who have made the senior team roster in previous years, in Schroeder and Campbell. Campbell even has an Olympic gold medal. The two have traded slots on the team, especially since Campbell stayed with the PWHPA and Schroeder played in the PHF.

Campbell was the goaltender of the year in her first season in the PWHL, and Schroeder holds the record for shutouts in the league. Neither of them had their best seasons last year, but I don't see how that fully takes them out of the conversation.

Schroeder will be the default starter in Seattle this year, which could get her a good look before the Olympics, but Campbell will have to compete against Maschmeyer for that starting spot in Vancouver, putting her at a disadvantage.

Ultimately, Troy Ryan and Gina Kingsbury may have their mind set on one or the other goaltender and not feel the need to bring them to the camp, but then again, wouldn't you want them to get used to playing with the team?

I'm sure there's a plan, but the goaltending decisions have me slightly worried, especially going into a tournament against the best shooters in the world (and an American team that will likely have a one-two punch of Frankel and Philips in net).

The women's team hopefuls will be joined by the men's team and the Paralympics team at the camp in Calgary.