On Monday, Team Canada announced their roster for the 2025 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Championship.
Hockey Canada announces roster for Team Canada’s 2026 #WorldJuniors training camp.🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/rZdlHxtqAx
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 8, 2025
With the preliminary round starting on Dec. 26, it’s time for teams to start filling out their rosters. The Canadians will look to fare better than they did in last year’s tournament where they made it to the quarterfinals before falling to Team Czechia 3-2.
Related: Guide to the 2026 World Junior Championship
There will be some cuts made to the roster before it is officially finalized, but here is how this year’s team stacks up against the rest.
Canada Forwards
Cole Beaudoin, Carter Bear, Braeden Cootes, Caleb Desnoyers, Liam Greentree, Michael Hage, Tij Iginla, Jett Luchanko, Brady Martin, Porter Martone, Gavin McKenna, Michael Misa, Jake O’Brien, Sam O’Reilly, Cole Reschny
No Team Canada roster this year would have been complete without the star power of Gavin McKenna, Tij Iginla, Cole Beaudoin, and Caleb Desnoyers. Not to mention Sam O’Reilly. Overall, the forward group alone is going to make this Canadian team a tough one to stack up against.
In his first season with the Penn State Nittany Lions, McKenna has tallied 18 points (four goals, 14 assists) in 16 games. McKenna has wobbled between being projected to go first overall in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft to falling all the way to third. He will still make a play to be the first pick, but his performance at the World Juniors will open scouts’ eyes as to where they seem to be going in the draft.
Iginla is also a powerful scoring threat for Team Canada, as through 17 games with the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League (WHL), he has tallied 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists).
Canada Defencemen
Kashawn Aitcheson, Harrison Brunicke, Carson Carels, Ben Danford, Ethan MacKenzie, Zayne Parekh, Cameron Reid, Jackson Smith, Keaton Vehoeff
One big key addition is Ethan MacKenzie. MacKenzie, for some odd reason, has not been drafted in two different cycles that he has gone through the process. Despite committing to play at the University of North Dakota in the 2026-27 season, should MacKenzie enter the draft for a third time, it should be third time’s a charm for the 19-year-old from West Kelowna, British Columbia.
In 30 games with the Edmonton Oil Kings, MacKenzie has scored 10 goals and also collected 21 assists. It’s possible he will be paired with Harrison Brunicke who played nine games at the NHL level this season and also racked up 30 points in his previous season with the Kamloops Blazers.
The defencemen for the Canadians look to be a key piece of this team and will complement the offence very well. After all, as they say, defence wins championships.
Canada Goaltenders
Carter George, Jack Ivankovic, Joshua Ravensbergen
Carter George returns to Team Canada after being named the nation’s starting goaltender in the 2025 World Juniors, but it will likely be a battle between him and University of Michigan netminder Jack Ivankovic for the starting spot this year.
In 22 games with the Owen Sound Attack, George’s record sits at 10-9-2 with a 3.12 goals-against average (GAA) and .899 save percentage (SV%). Ivankovic, on the other hand, in 20 games with the top-ranked Wolverines has posted a 16-4-0 record with a 1.90 GAA and .927 SV%.
Ravensbergen’s record is nothing to sneeze at either, as through 22 games it sits at 16-6-0 with a GAA of 2.50 and a SV% of .921 (a career-high). Although it’s unlikely, it’s possible the Canadians could use all three goalies at some point during the tournament.
Canada Could Be the Favourite To Win the Tournament
In tournaments like these, it’s easy to fall back on the home-ice advantage clichĂ©. However, the host nation is not Team Canada and instead is Team USA. With how close Minnesota is to Canada, though, the two nations might as well be sharing home-ice advantage.
With talent aplenty on Canada’s roster, they will make a formidable opponent for whoever deems it wise to take them on. Watch for them to be a favourite to go for the gold.
