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When Canada announced the first six players to the roster ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics, there wasn’t a big surprise about who was named.
Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Connor McDavid, Brayden Point, and Sam Reinhart were the first six chosen Monday after representing Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
General manager Doug Armstrong doesn’t expect to see a complete makeover from the 4 Nations roster, but did say there could be some openings.
“I would say that certainly the majority, probably could be 70 to 80 per cent of the players, could be consistent from that event,” he said on a media conference call. “But I think some players are going to rise up.”
Canada has never been short of options for international competition.
Armstrong believes there is a case for a few players to showcase themselves and get a better opportunity to make the team.
“I think if you look at some of the players that were on the cusp of making that 4 Nations team,” Armstrong said, “we had one in St. Louis, Robert Thomas, obviously got a difficult start to his year with injuries and didn’t have a chance with the team being named early to put his best foot forward. He played fantastic the rest of that season. Nick Suzuki was another player who played great hockey. Tom Wilson played great hockey.
“There are a lot of guys that didn’t make that team who are going to want to have a great October, November, December, and using that extra month, I think, is going to be advantageous to us.”
Along with Thomas, Wilson and Suzuki, forwards like Mark Scheifele, Connor Bedard, Zach Hyman and defencemen MacKenzie Weegar, Evan Bouchard, and Chris Tanev were seen as notable omissions from the 4 Nations roster.
One position that Canada did not reveal among the first six players named was in goal. In the 4 Nations tournament, Jordan Binnington played in every game and was crucial in the overtime win in the final, finishing with a 3-1 record with a 2.37 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage.
The men’s hockey tournament will take place from Feb. 11 to 22 in Milan at the 2026 Games.
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