Twenty-five players will compete for the Canadian women’s hockey team at the Rivalry Series later this week, as Hockey Canada moves closer to naming the players who will look to defend gold at the Olympics.
With fewer than 100 days to go until the best female hockey players in the world descend on Milan, Italy, this year’s Canada-U.S. Rivalry Series will be a crucial test for players who are on the edge of making the roster.
It’s also a rare chance for the team to experiment with line combinations and chemistry, as the Canadians will have only four games together before the Olympics begin in February.
The first leg of the Rivalry Series begins Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by a game on Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y.
The Rivalry Series will conclude with two games in Edmonton on Dec. 10 and 13, and Hockey Canada is likely to name a different roster for those final two games.
“These four games are more than just a mini-competition between two rival nations; they remain an important measuring stick for us as we continue building toward the 2026 Olympic Winter Games,” Canadian GM Gina Kingsbury said.
“We have focused our training blocks on fine-tuning our on-ice identity and paying attention to the details that we believe will drive our success. The four games are a critical step in that process, and we are excited to see it all come together on the ice.”
In previous seasons, Olympic hopefuls would live and train together at one centralized location for months as they worked to make the team.
But the PWHL has changed the way Hockey Canada is selecting the team. Instead of centralizing in one spot for months, 30 Olympic hopefuls have attended three training blocks across the country this fall.
The 25-player roster for the U.S. leg of the Rivalry Series includes all three NCAA players who are looking to make their first Olympic team: defender Chloe Primerano (University of Minnesota), forward Caitlin Kraemer (University of Minnesota Duluth) and goaltender Ève Gascon (University of Minnesota Duluth).
Should she make the Olympic team, Primerano would be the youngest player to do so since Marie-Philip Poulin at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Up front, most of the team’s veterans will be playing in the first two Rivalry Series games, including the captain, Poulin (Montreal Victoire), Blayre Turnbull (Toronto Sceptres), Sarah Fillier (New York Sirens), Natalie Spooner (Toronto Sceptres) and Sarah Nurse (PWHL Vancouver).
Missing from the training camp roster are Ottawa Charge teammates Emily Clark, who has been recovering from off-season surgery, and Brianne Jenner.
On defence, the team will be without veteran defender Jocelyne Larocque (Ottawa Charge) and Montreal Victoire rookie, Nicole Gosling.
With several returnees from the 2022 team that won Olympic gold, and players like two-time Walter Cup champion Sophie Jaques pushing for a spot, the blue line is likely where some of Hockey Canada’s most difficult decisions will need to be made.
In net, Canadian starter Ann-Renée Desbiens (Montreal Victoire) won’t be at the Rivalry Series. Instead, the team will get a solid look at the options for the second- and third-string netminder spots: long-time Canadian backup Emerance Maschmeyer (PWHL Vancouver) and newcomers Gascon and Kayle Osborne (New York Sirens).
Twenty-three players will make the final Olympic roster.
With so few games together before the Olympics, head coach Troy Ryan has said staff are on the lookout for chemistry forming at the training blocks.
It could be mixing and matching on defence or bonds formed while players live together during training camps. Or it could be the ability of Poulin and Daryl Watts, two of the most skilled players in women’s hockey, to find each other on the ice with creative passing.
But nothing is quite the same as seeing your players together in game action against the Canadians’ top rival.
“Normally in a centralization, we get between 30 and 50 games as a group to prepare, and this group now will get four together before they go to the Olympics,” Ryan said at Canadian training camp in September. “In those four games, we’ll probably be playing some people that are sort of on the bubble to be selected to the Olympic [team].”
PWHL training camps open across the league on Friday, and players from the Canadian and U.S. national teams are expected to report to their teams on Sunday.
The league will also play a key decision-making role for the Canadian management group. PWHL teams will play half of the regular season before the the league breaks for the Olympics at the end of January.
The PWHL regular season opens on Nov. 21 as the Sceptres visit the Minnesota Frost for a playoff re-match. Later that night, PWHL Vancouver will host Seattle for the expansion teams’ league debut.
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