TORONTO — The Canadian women’s national hockey team will lean on an experience-heavy roster at the 2026 Olympics, naming 20 returning players from the 2025 world championships to its 23-player roster on Friday afternoon.

That includes 13 forwards who represented the national team last April, including three of the top five goal scorers in the PWHL this season — captain Marie-Philip Poulin, Brianne Jenner and Daryl Watts. Jennifer Gardiner, who finished second in tournament scoring, will make her Olympic debut. So will Watts, who is second all-time in PWHL scoring behind only Poulin.

Sarah Nurse, who set the Olympic record for scoring in a single tournament (18) in 2022, will also return to the roster and should be ready for Milan after missing most of the 2025-26 season due to injury.

Among the six returning defenders are all three 2025 PWHL defender of the year finalists, Renata Fast, Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson. No. 1 goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens — who has a .947 save percentage in the PWHL this season — will return to Canada’s crease. And while she wasn’t at last year’s worlds due to injury, longtime back-up goalie Emerance Maschmeyer will head to her second Olympics. New York Sirens goalie Kayle Osborne will fill out the depth chart.

Overall, Canada’s roster includes 16 players with Olympic experience and nine with more than two tournaments under their belts, led by Poulin, who will play in her fifth Olympic Games in Milan; Jenner, Natalie Spooner and defender Jocelyne Larocque will play in their fourth.

Seven players — Watts, Gardiner, Kristin O’Neill, Julia Gosling, Kati Tabin, Jaques and Osborne — will make their Olympic debuts when the women’s tournament begins on Feb. 5.

Team Canada’s preliminary round begins with a game against Finland and ends with a rivalry match against the U.S. on Feb. 10. The gold medal game is slated for Feb. 19.

The U.S. women’s roster was named on Jan. 31 and can be viewed here.

Snubs

Danielle Serdachny, Chloe Primerano, Ève Gascon and Micah Zandee-Hart were all left off the Olympic roster after winning silver at world championships in Czechia.

Serdachny, who scored the golden goal at 2024 worlds in Utica, is arguably the Canadians’ biggest snub. She’s played a depth role well for Canada over three straight world championships but has struggled to adjust to the PWHL, scoring just three goals and 10 points in 39 games over her first two seasons. Gosling, with four goals and eight points in nine games this season alone, might have simply jumped Serdachny on the depth chart.

It was surprising, in some ways, to not see defender Primerano on the roster, given she has established herself as one of the most promising prospects in women’s hockey. After two years dominating girls high school hockey, Primerano graduated early and made her college debut for the University of Minnesota — and did it a year ahead of schedule at just 17 years old. Had she made this roster, she’d have been the first teenager to make a Canadian Olympic team since Poulin in 2010. While her ceiling is absurdly high, Primerano has yet to look dominant on the blue line at the senior international level. She will certainly be part of Canada’s Olympic team in 2030.