Breaking down Canada’s 2026 Olympic men’s hockey roster

Finally, fantasy and barroom debate give way to reality. With Canada revealing its 2026 Olympic roster selections on New Year’s Eve Wednesday, we can admire the hockey superpower’s first true best-on-best lineup for the Winter Games since 2014.

After all the anticipation: did GM Doug Armstrong get the roster right? Here’s a full breakdown of Canada’s Milano-Cortina 2026 roster, with my likes, dislikes and more.

FORWARDS (14)

Macklin Celebrini (SJ)
Anthony Cirelli (TB)
Sidney Crosby (Pit)
Brandon Hagel (TB)
Bo Horvat (NYI)
Nathan MacKinnon (Col)
Brad Marchand (Fla)
Mitch Marner (VGK)
Connor McDavid (Edm)
Brayden Point (TB)
Sam Reinhart (Fla)
Mark Stone (VGK)
Nick Suzuki (Mtl)
Tom Wilson (Wsh)

DEFENSEMEN (8)

Drew Doughty (LA)
Thomas Harley (Dal)
Cale Makar (Col)
Josh Morrissey (Wpg)
Colton Parayko (Stl)
Travis Sanheim (Phi)
Shea Theodore (VGK)
Devon Toews (Col)

GOALTENDERS (3)

Jordan Binnington (Stl)
Darcy Kuemper (LA)
Logan Thompson (Wsh)

The Canadians got a handy dress rehearsal via the 4 Nations Face-Off last February and, since they won, Armstrong had a successful template to draw from. In the top half of the forward group, Canada still possesses unparalleled star power. Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and newcomer Macklin Celebrini sit first, second and third in the NHL in points. Just as it did at the 4 Nations, Canada will have the luxury of spreading McDavid and MacKinnon across two lines – McDavid clicked best with Mark Stone and Brayden Point by tournament’s end, and MacKinnon with Sidney Crosby and Sam Reinhart. It stands to reason head coach Jon Cooper can try the same combinations again, though Celebrini showed nice chemistry with Crosby at the 2025 World Championship.

Predicting the bottom-six forward group was more fluid over the past couple months. It was a given that Canada would find an enviable mix of superb two-way forwards, but it was just a matter of which ones and whether Canada would lean heavier on brawn in anticipation of an elimination-round rematch against a big, physical American team.

My early assumption was that Canada had one “blunt instrument” spot reserved for its forward group, and that assumption proved to be correct. At the 4 Nations, Canada went with Sam Bennett, who opened the tourney as a healthy scratch but served a “break glass in case of emergency” purpose, called into action for the violent round-robin tilt vs. the Americans. Bennett never left the lineup after that, and he dominated in the Stanley Cup playoffs with the Florida Panthers en route to the Conn Smythe Trophy as they won their second consecutive championship. But Tom Wilson has outplayed Bennett in the power forward archetype this season. Wilson is bigger, devastatingly punishing with his physical play and leading the Washington Capitals in goals. He nudged out Bennett, who has had a down 2025-26. Will that be a mistake at a tournament played under IIHF rules, albeit with some NHL officials mixed in with IIHF ones? Bennett and Wilson both play right on the line and often on the wrong side of it, but even Wilson’s clean hits inflict serious damage on opponents due to his size. He’s more of a discipline risk than Bennett, which says a lot.

The forwards are Canada’s strength by far. On defense, plenty of talent was available, but it was a matter of whether the Canada brass would go with the best all-around players or try to galaxy-brain a more physical and defensively conservative lineup like they did at the 4 Nations. Superstar Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche partner Devon Toews and Winnipeg Jets stud Josh Morrissey felt like the only givens, but Canada decided in the end not to rock the boat with its D-corps even remotely. Including emergency replacement Thomas Harley, Canada brings back the same eight blueliners it used at the 4 Nations. Vegas Golden Knights puck-mover Shea Theodore only saw a taste of action before getting hurt in Canada’s first game and gets another shot. Travis Sanheim brings the rangy wingspan and penalty-kill ability, Drew Doughty the leadership and Colton Parayko another big body. Still, Canada opted to leave a lot of skill behind, including dynamic rookie Matthew Schaefer and the criminally misunderstood Evan Bouchard. More on them later.

The most highly anticipated decisions came in net. The St. Louis Blues’ Jordan Binnington has struggled this season – among 62 goalies who have played 10 or more games, he’s 60^th in goals saved above expected per 60 – but calls Armstrong his GM and backstopped Canada to the 4 Nations title. Binnington showed up when Canada needed him most, so he was a virtual lock. It was a total mystery after that, however, given 4 Nations invitees Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault have been injured and bad, respectively, in 2025-26. Canada deserves kudos for stepping up and adding the netminders who finished third and fourth, respectively, in last season’s Vezina vote in Darcy Kuemper and Logan Thompson.

Kuemper, a 2021-22 Stanley Cup champ and 2021 World Championship gold medallist for Canada, is a safe floor pick. Thompson was ignored by Canada when selecting the 4 Nations squad last year and not invited to the summer camp, with rumors persisting there was friction between him and Canada assistant coaches Pete DeBoer and Bruce Cassidy, who coached Thompson with the Golden Knights in the past. But Thompson has simply been too good to deny. He’s arguably the best Canadian goalie right now, period, a serious 2025-26 Vezina contender and a legit threat to steal the starting job from Binnington. Goaltending could’ve been a weakness but looks closer to a strength for Canada than it was a year ago.

Biggest reach

Is it fair to call someone who played on the 4 Nations team a reach? Parayko was easily Canada’s weakest defenseman at that tournament. The team had a 38.64 percent scoring chance share at 5-on-5 with him on the ice. He brings the 6-foot-6, 232-pound frame but isn’t actually a menacing physical presence. Selecting him over Schaefer, Bouchard and Jakob Chychrun is a mistake. They can do so many things better – including defend.

Anthony Cirelli also made the 4 Nations squad and is an excellent defensive forward and penalty killer – but with such an incredibly deep talent pool to draw from, do you need to burn a roster spot on a specialist? Shades of 1998 Rob Zamuner. Canada is loaded with strong 200-foot forwards already. Brandon Hagel, Mitch Marner, Sam Reinhart, Nick Suzuki and so on would be fine picks to kill penalties.

Biggest omission

We can’t count Seth Jarvis as a true omission given his upper-body injury is to blame for him not making the team, but he deserves a stick tap as a excellent two-way forward who deserved a bottom-six look. I might have considered Mark Scheifele over Cirelli given Scheifele’s extremely accurate shooting ability. I don’t have Connor Bedard as high on my snub list as plenty of others likely will; injury or not, he was always on the outside looking in because he turned down Canada twice to suit up at the Worlds in 2024 and 2025 after his Chicago Blackhawks missed the playoffs. Celebrini laid claim to the “young guy” spot.

The biggest omissions for me come on defense. Chychrun, Schaefer and Bouchard are all having campaigns worthy of Norris consideration, yet we’re to believe none of them ranks among the eight best blueliners in Canada? I’ve already picked on Parayko, but I would’ve passed on Harley during a down year with the Dallas Stars, too, and even the grizzled Doughty’s leadership isn’t necessarily needed on a team full of superstars and future Hall of Famers with or without him.

Burning question

Will Canada regret running it back with the same defense corps? We can nitpick the forwards, but being short that one goal scorer or role player won’t be an excuse for a squad full of Hart and Art Ross Trophy winners. Maybe Mackenzie Blackwood should’ve gotten the call over Binnington, but Canada still brought most of its best goalies. No: the weakness, and the roster point that will draw criticism if Canada struggles, is the blueline. It would be one thing to mess up on just Schaefer or Chychrun or Bouchard, but to leave all three was a blunder. Did Canada whiff on three of eight blueline selections? Time will tell.

Projected Lines

Stone-McDavid-Point
Crosby-MacKinnon-Reinhart
Hagel-Suzuki-Marner
Marchand-Horvat-Wilson
Cirelli

Toews-Makar
Morrissey-Doughty
Theodore-Parayko
Harley-Sanheim

Binnington
Thompson
Kuemper

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