Bedard, Celebrini among those invited to Canadian men's Olympic hockey camp

Yahoo

5 days ago

The past, present and future of Canadian men's hockey will meet at a Hockey Canada national team orientation camp in Calgary later this month.
Young stars Connor Bedard (Chicago Blackhawks) and Macklin Celebrini (San Jose Sharks) will join Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) and Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers), who have already been named to the Canadian men's Olympic team, for three days of off-ice meetings, team building and presentations.
Much was made about Bedard's omission from the 4 Nations Face-Off team earlier this year after a difficult season with the Blackhawks. But both Bedard and Celebrini, who starred alongside Crosby at the world championship this past spring, will have a chance to prove they belong at the Olympics.
They're four of 42 NHL players invited to the camp, and will be joined by players vying to make the Canadian women's and Para hockey teams that will compete for gold in Milano Cortina in February.
"While the next several months will bring intense evaluation and difficult roster decisions, we look forward to kicking off the season in Calgary and giving our athletes and staff a chance to come together and start to become one team as we set our sights on February," Scott Salmond, Hockey Canada's senior vice-president of high performance and hockey operations, said in a statement.
The first six players on the men's team were named in June: Crosby, McDavid, MacKinnon, Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche), Brayden Point (Tampa Bay Lightning) and back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Sam Reinhart (Florida Panthers).
Four other Panthers are competing to join Reinhart on the Olympic team: defenceman Aaron Ekblad and forwards Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Carter Verhaeghe.
Every player who won at the 4 Nations Face-Off was invited back.
Canada looks set in goal
NHL players haven't appeared at an Olympic Games since 2014 in Sochi, and only three players invited to Hockey Canada's August camp have an Olympic gold medal to their names: Crosby, John Tavares (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Drew Doughty (Los Angeles Kings).
Nineteen players on the camp list are Stanley Cup champions, while 12 have won world championship gold medals.
Only three goaltenders were named to Hockey Canada's roster, suggesting the team is set in net. They include St. Louis Blues starter Jordan Binnington, who backstopped Canada to a 4 Nations Face-Off win over the United States earlier this year. He'll be joined by Adin Hill (Vegas Golden Knights) and Sam Montembeault (Montreal Canadiens), who were also part of the 4 Nations Face-Off team.
On the blue line, young, puck-moving defencemen like Noah Dobson (Montreal Canadiens) and Evan Bouchard (Edmonton Oilers) are in the mix, competing against veterans like Doughty and Ekblad. Makar is the only defenceman who's been named to the team so far.
His long-time D-partner in Colorado, Devon Toews, seems likely to make the team beside him, while McDavid's linemate on the Oilers, Zach Hyman, could provide some built-in chemistry during a short tournament.
Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, and Edmonton Oilers forwards Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman are among the players fighting for a spot on the team at forward.
The players were selected by a leadership group that includes GM Doug Armstrong, assistant GMs Julien BriseBois, Jim Nill and Don Sweeney, director of player personnel Kyle Dubas, head coach Jon Cooper and Ryan Getzlaf, who's a player relations advisor with the team.
The men's team opens its Olympic tournament against the Czech Republic on Feb. 12. The gold medal game will be on Feb. 22.
Para camp roster named
Twenty men have also been selected to attend camps and events with the Para hockey program, as the squad looks to avenge a gold-medal game loss to the U.S. in 2022.
The three goaltenders, six defencemen and 11 forwards include nine players who earned silver at the 2022 Paralympics, and 16 who won gold at the 2024 World Para Hockey Championship in Calgary.
That includes captain Tyler McGregor, who will be looking for his first gold medal after two silver and a bronze at the Paralympics, as well as Liam Hickey and Dominic Cozzolino, who led Canada in scoring at the 2025 World Para Hockey Championship, where Canada finished second to the U.S.
Three goaltenders (Corbin Watson, Adam Kingsmill and Jean-François Huneault) round out the camp roster.
The Paralympic Games in Milano Cortina begin on March 6 and run through March 15.