What are the biggest surprises from Canada’s Olympic roster announcement?

The moment a nation has been waiting for has finally arrived. No, not New Year’s Eve. We’re talking about the announcement of the Canadian men’s hockey roster for February’s 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. Doug Armstrong, the general manager of Canada’s Olympic team, revealed on Wednesday the 25 players selected to represent their country in Italy.

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Team Canada has finalized its roster for the 2026 Olympics at #MilanCortina2026

5:13 PM · Dec 31, 2025

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Canada’s Olympic roster has been the subject of exhaustive debate and speculation all year, so there aren’t any players on the roster that nobody saw coming. Still, there are players whose inclusions come as more of a surprise than others, such as Bo Horvat or Anthony Cirelli. And then there are the players left off the roster that many wanted on it, such as Connor Bedard or Sam Bennett.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by Sports 1440‘s and Daily Faceoff‘s Jason Gregor to discuss the biggest surprises from Canada’s Olympic roster announcement.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Let me just start with the suprising elements of this announcement. Sam Bennett is off. Bo Horvat, Anthony Cirelli, Nick Suzuki, whoever you want to say took his spot. I think Horvat may be the most surprising, but what do you make of Team Canada leaving off Sam Bennett?

Jason Gregor: It’s basically Bennett for (Tom) Wilson, is how I think it comes down to it. Wilson is probably a little bit better of a skater, I think he’s a better scorer overall than Sam Bennett, but Sam Bennett was excellent at 4 Nations and he was excellent last year in the playoffs where it matters. This might be just showing you how deeply ingrained the Tampa-Florida rivalry is, that Bennett’s not on the team and there are some Tampa guys.

I say that somewhat facetiously, but Cirelli I’m not surprised. I thought for sure Cirelli was going to make it. He made it last time. He’s the fourth-line center, he kills penalties, the coach really knows him and they trust him. It’s a very specific role for him. With Mark Scheifele, it was my understanding it was going to be one of Scheifele or Horvat, and they ultimately chose Bo Horvat. Why? I’d be curious about why. To me, the bigger surprise might be Mark Stone, to be honest. I didn’t think Stone was great at the 4 Nations.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…