{"id":40583,"date":"2026-05-11T16:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/40583\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:13:09","slug":"team-canada-looking-to-get-back-on-podium-at-iihf-world-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/40583\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Canada looking to get back on podium at IIHF World Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tAP Photo\/Sergei Grits<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMay 11, 2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Sharing<\/p>\n

Team Canada will look to return to the podium at the 2026 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Canada hasn\u2019t won a medal at the annual men\u2019s hockey tournament since 2023 when they captured gold. After going 6-0-1 in the preliminary round of last year\u2019s event, the Canadians were upset by Denmark in the quarterfinals, placing them fifth overall. In 2024, Canada lost to Sweden in the bronze medal game.<\/p>\n

While the last couple years have not gone Canada\u2019s way, it\u2019s been a strong decade for the country at men\u2019s hockey worlds. Canada has played in the gold medal game seven times since 2015 and, prior to last year\u2019s quarterfinal loss, had qualified for the semifinals every year since then.<\/p>\n

\"MacklinTeam Canada\u2019s Macklin Celebrini (17) looks on before a face off against team Finland in men\u2019s ice hockey semi-finals at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy on Friday, February 20, 2026. Photo by Leah Hennel\/COC<\/p>\n

The United States enters this year\u2019s tournament as the defending champions. The Americans defeated Switzerland in last year\u2019s gold medal game to capture their first world title since 1960.<\/p>\n

The 2026 tournament begins Friday, May 15 and ends Sunday, May 31. Games will be split between Z\u00fcrich and Fribourg.<\/p>\n

Who is playing for Team Canada at the 2026 IIHF World Championship?<\/p>\n

Team Canada\u2019s roster for the world championship looks much different from the team that wore the red and white at the\u00a0Milano Cortina 2026<\/a>\u00a0Olympic Winter Games. That comes as no surprise given that most of Canada\u2019s Olympians are either still participating in the NHL\u2019s Stanley Cup Playoffs or recovering physically from a busy season.<\/p>\n

Nineteen-year-old forward Macklin Celebrini<\/a> of the San Jose Sharks is the lone member of Canada\u2019s Milano Cortina 2026 contingent that will play at the men\u2019s worlds. Celebrini had a breakout 2025-26 season that saw him record 45 goals and 115 points in 82 games with the Sharks. He also had an impressive Olympic performance, posting five goals and five assists to finish second behind teammate Connor McDavid<\/a> in tournament scoring.<\/p>\n

Celebrini will be Team Canada\u2019s captain in Switzerland. The team\u2019s leadership group also includes veteran forwards Ryan O\u2019Reilly of the Nashville Predators and John Tavares<\/a> of the Toronto Maple Leafs, both of whom will be alternate captains.<\/p>\n

Tavares was part of Canada\u2019s gold medal-winning team at Sochi 2014<\/a> and will be playing in his fifth world championship. The 35-year-old has 18 goals and 18 assists in 31 career games at the men\u2019s worlds.<\/p>\n

Twelve of the 23 players named to the roster have suited up for Canada at previous world championships. Along with Celebrini, Tavares and O\u2019Reilly, that list includes Matthew Barzal, Connor Brown, Dylan Cozens, Darnell Nurse, Morgan Rielly, Mark Scheifele, Cam Talbot, Gabriel Vilardi and Zach Whitecloud.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s defence core is headlined by Evan Bouchard, who led all NHL defencemen in points this season, recording 21 goals and 74 assists in 82 games with the Edmonton Oilers. The 26-year-old, who played for Canada at the under-17 and under-20 levels, will be making his first appearance with the senior men\u2019s national team.<\/p>\n

The mix of youth and experience is certainly seen on the backend. The group includes the likes of 32-year-old Rielly and 33-year-old Dylan DeMelo while also featuring 21-year-old Denton Mateychuk and 19-year-old Sam Dickinson.<\/p>\n

In net, Talbot will look to replicate what he did at the 2016 worlds when he went 7-1 with a 1.25 goals against average and a .940 save percentage to help Canada capture gold. Talbot will be joined by University of Michigan goaltender Jack Ivankovic, who has played in the past two IIHF World Junior Championships, and Columbus Blue Jackets netminder Jet Greaves.<\/p>\n

What is Team Canada\u2019s schedule at the men\u2019s world hockey championship?<\/p>\n

Team Canada will play in Group B, based in Fribourg, alongside Sweden, Czechia, Denmark, Slovakia, Norway, Slovenia and Italy. Group A, based in Z\u00fcrich, will consist of the United States, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Hungary and Great Britain.<\/p>\n

Canada will be tested early in the tournament with their first game taking place on Friday, May 15 <\/a>against Sweden, who captured bronze at the last two world championships. The Canadians will face Italy the next day followed by Denmark (May 18), Norway (May 21), Slovenia (May 22), Slovakia (May 24) and Czechia (May 26).<\/p>\n

The quarterfinals will take place May 28 and will be split between Fribourg and Z\u00fcrich. The remainder of the tournament will be held inside Z\u00fcrich\u2019s Swiss Life Arena where the semifinals will take place May 30 followed by the bronze and gold medal games on May 31.<\/p>\n

All of Team Canada\u2019s games will be\u00a0broadcast by TSN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Team Canada 2026 IIHF World Championship Roster<\/p>\n

Goaltenders (3)
Jet Greaves
Jack Ivankovic
Cam Talbot <\/p>\n

Defensemen (8)
Evan Bouchard
Dylan DeMelo
Sam Dickinson
Denton Mateychuk
Darnell Nurse
Morgan Rielly
Zach Whitecloud
Parker Wotherspoon <\/p>\n

Forwards (12)
Mathew Barzal
Connor Brown
Macklin Celebrini<\/a>
Dylan Cozens
Emmitt Finnie
Dylan Holloway
Fraser Minten
Ryan O\u2019Reilly
Mark Scheifele
John Tavares<\/a>
Robert Thomas
Gabriel Vilardi <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Sergei Grits May 11, 2026 Team Canada will look to return to the podium at the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,461,268,4912,10860,5993,1564,2019],"class_list":{"0":"post-40583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-connor-mcdavid","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-hockey-canada","12":"tag-iihf-world-championship","13":"tag-john-tavares","14":"tag-macklin-celebrini","15":"tag-team-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}