2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics: What would Canada’s B-team look like for men’s hockey?
Let the second guessing begin, it’s time to look at the players who missed the cut for Team Canada’s men’s hockey roster ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
There’s no shortage of high-end Canadian talent in the NHL and that always leads to elite level players not making the Olympic roster.
Can this superstar play a depth role? How could you leave that goalie off the roster when he’s having a career-year? Shouldn’t you think about the future and move past the old guard? A lot of fans undoubtedly asked these questions and many more.
The simple truth, is it’s a 25-man roster and Canada is loaded with more talent than any other country, so really good players will always be cut from this team.
With that in mind, I’m going to play armchair GM and go through the snubs to try to build the best Team Canada B-team. Let’s get into it.
Gold medal odds
Forwards
Left Wing
Centre
Right Wing
Zach Hyman
Connor Bedard
Wyatt Johnston
Seth Jarvis
Mark Scheifele
Morgan Geekie
Carter Verhaeghe
Ryan O'Reilly
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Sam Bennett
Nazem Kadri
Travis Konecny
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Robert Thomas
Dylan Guenther
The forward group for Canada’s B-team could go toe-to-toe with any country.
On the top line, Zach Hyman has proven to be a perfect complimentary piece to superstars like Connor Bedard and Wyatt Johnston. Hyman will go to the dirty areas and make life easy on the youngsters.
Mark Scheifele is a great second line centre, who is defensively responsible without sacrificing offence. Scheifele, Seth Jarvis and Morgan Geekie all have a knack for finding the back of the net.
I had to move Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the right side on my third line, but he’s been adaptable throughout his career and he would pair nicely with Ryan O’Reilly and Carter Verhaeghe as a trio that can take advantage of matchups against other teams’ bottom-six.
The fourth line is an absolute dream shutdown group with menaces Sam Bennett and Nazem Kadri teaming up Travis Konency, who also isn’t afraid to get in opponents’ faces.
Defencemen
Left Defence
Right Defence
Matthew Schaffer
MacKenzie Weegar
Jakob Chychrun
Evan Bouchard
Mike Matheson
Noah Dobson
Owen Power
Aaron Ekblad
The idea behind my defensive pairings is to blend high offensive upside, with proven defensive responsibility.
I like the idea of letting players like Matthew Schaeffer, Evan Bouchard and Noah Dobson get creative to drive the flow of play, while MacKenzie Weegar, Jakob Chychrun and Mike Matheson provide support and defensive coverage.
I went back and forth on swapping the top two pairings, but I finally settled on giving the unproven Schaeffer the first crack as he continues to dominate the NHL. Bouchard has glaring issues in his game, so I think a role with easier matchups will help him thrive.
Goaltenders
Goalie
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Jake Allen
Goaltending was easily the most glaring issue for Team Canada when constructing their Olympic roster, so it’s a little surprising the goalies with the two best goals-against averages in the NHL, Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood, both fell to the B-team.
Blackwood and Wedgewood have been a perfect duo in Colorado and I like the idea of a goalie tandem that already knows how to have healthy competition to push each other.
I’ll go with Jake Allen for my third goalie because all you hear about him is that he is a great teammate and that’s exactly what you need in a short, pressure-packed, tournament.
Final thoughts
This is a really solid team and I’m not just saying that because I’m the brilliant mind who put it together. Over an 82-game season I think you’d see a noticeable gap between Canada’s B-team and the likes of Canada-A, the United States, Sweden and Finland, but I think Canada-B could surprise teams in a short tournament.
I still give the edge to Canada-A and the U.S., but Canada-B is a team that could compete for a medal in Italy.
