The biggest questions for Canada ahead of Olympic roster announcement 

The Canadian Olympic Committee and Hockey Canada are set to announce the men’s Olympic hockey roster for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Games on Wednesday, leaving just a few hours to speculate which players may crack the roster. 

Six players were already named to the roster ahead of the 2025-26 NHL season, including Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, Brayden Point, and Sam Reinhart, leaving the other spots to be filled on Wednesday. 

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton broke down the most significant questions facing Team Canada before the announcement. On Wednesday, they will live-react to the unveiling on DFO Live as well. 

Yaremchuk: Ahead of tomorrow’s announcement, each of us made our list of three big things that we are curious about watching for when this roster gets announced. What are the three big things to look for on this roster?

Hutton: Obviously, goalies, because I’m a goalie. But it is actually the highlight when we look at Team Canada. What the heck are they going to do in net, right? Jordan Bennington gets in there based on body of work and what he’s done at the international level and in big games, and then from there, it’s a crapshoot, right? Looking back to last year, Sam Montembault is now in the AHL on a conditioning assignment. Aidin Hill has been hurt, so in that category, I do think we’re going to see Logan Thompson, rightfully so. He should have been there at the 4 Nations Face-Off. 

For that third spot, there are a lot of arguments on different sides. It’s going to be Mackenzie Blackwood because he is the elite guy, and he is the guy that can go there and be a difference maker. It’s going to be a dogfight, and it’s going to be interesting. 

I also wrote down that, as they’re trying to build, this team is going to be based on skill versus adaptability. What I mean by that is, yes, there’s a ton of skill, but now you’re going to take them out of roles where they’re playing 20 minutes, or certain situations where they are the first guy over the wall, and now can you be that bottom six forward versus a player that’s already in that role? Skill is going to adapt, and it will be interesting to see how they build this out as a team. 

They have the best players on paper, but how do they build this as a team? My last point was, coaches’ picks, the trustworthy guys that Jon Cooper has in Anthony Cirelli, in a player, Brayden Point, he has those relationships, and now he has those relationships from the players from the 4 Nations Face-Off, and that goes along with all the other head coaches he’s dealing with, and Doug Armstrong. It will be interesting to see whether they wipe the slate clean or show a bit of recency bias, given that they’ve dealt with these players before.

Yaremchuk:  I like the skill vs. adaptability point that ties into mine, where it’s the kids up front. Are you bringing both Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard? That ties directly to too much size, like, how much size is too much? You want to be big, you want to forecheck hard, you want to do all these things, but we have also seen at the World Juniors that sometimes physicality is not a good thing. It can get you in trouble with the way IIHF games are officiated. 

And then for me, it’s the blue line, like a similar conversation. Do you need both Travis Sanheim and Colton Parayko on that blue line? If you also have pieces like Devon Toews and Josh Morrissey, who can kill penalties for you and things like that, then the blue line will be interesting, too.

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