Featured, International Hockey
Canada’s 2026 World Junior Selection Camp
16
Dec
Dec
The process of building the team that will compete for gold at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship in Minnesota is underway.
Team Canada will benefit from a solid core of returning players. Six members from last year’s squad are back to guide the new group: goaltenders Carter George and Jack Ivankovic, and forwards Cole Beaudoin, Jett Luchanko, Porter Martone, and Gavin McKenna. This group’s leadership and familiarity with the tournament’s intensity provide a foundation for the team’s pursuit of gold.
The OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs have four players invited: defenceman Ben Danford and forwards Jett Luchanko, Jake O’Brien, and Marek Vanacker was a late invite. If three of them make the final roster, it would be the ninth time an OHL club has sent that many players to a single World Juniors.
A pair of 17-year-old NHL draft eligible defencemen, Carson Carels and Keaton Verhoeff were invited, Since the Program of Excellence began in 1982, only 12 defencemen have played for Canada as 17-year-olds. Should Carels and Verhoeff make the final cut, they would become the 13th and 14th to do so, joining an elite list that includes Scott Niedermayer, Wade Redden, Ryan Ellis, Jamie Drysdale, and Aaron Ekblad.
Amongst the players invited to Canada’s National Junior Team training camp, 19 are NHL first-round picks and Ravensbergen, Aitcheson, Reid, Smith, Bear, Cootes, Desnoyers, Martin, Martone, Misa, O’Brien, and Reschny were selected in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft.
Siix of the players invited to camp have already made their NHL debuts: Harrison Brunicke, Braeden Cootes, Jett Luchanko, Brady Martin, Michael Misa, and Zayne Parekh.
If Tij Iginla earns a spot on the 2026 team, he and his father, Jarome Iginla (1996), would become just the fifth father-son duo to represent Canada at the World Junior Championship. They would join an exclusive club that includes Steve (1978) and Jeff Tambellini (2004), Dave (1984) and Sam Gagner (2007), Shean (1995) and Jorian Donovan (2024), and Denis (1996) and Ethan Gauthier (2025).
Canada faces Sweden in Kitchener and London before heading to Minnesota.
Camp Roster
