The wait for Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey roster is nearly over as we’ll find out on Wednesday who makes the cut for Milano Cortina in February.
TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button and TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson teamed up for their third and final consensus roster of who they would select for the 2026 Olympic team. It comes with the caveat that this is the roster they would select and not a prediction of what Canada will do.
That decision is up to Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong, and you can see who makes the cut LIVE on TSN1, TSN4, TSN.ca and the TSN App beginning at 11:30am ET/8:30am PT Wednesday morning.
A couple of big changes stand out from Button and Johnson’s last consensus roster from Dec. 11.
Connor Bedard goes from top-line right winger to off the roster due to injury, with Sam Bennett joining Canada as a replacement. And in net, Jordan Binnington’s continued struggles have forced him from starting goaltender to off the Olympic team altogether in favour of Mackenzie Blackwood, who continues to enjoy a strong season for the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche.
Here is Button and Johnson’s latest consensus roster, with changes highlighted in red.
Craig Button, Mike Johnson Olympic consensus roster (Dec. 30) (TSN)
Bedard incurred an upper-body injury while taking a face-off against the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 12 and will not return to game action until the new year. The 20-year-old skated with Chicago for the first time since going down on Monday but remains without a timeline to return, which should force Canada to leave him back in Johnson’s eyes despite him playing above a point-per-game level for the first time in his NHL career.
“Connor Bedard, for us, was so tough. I was such an advocate, he deserved to be on there. But it’s the injury that forced us to pull him off because if he gets back and starts playing in January and is not 100 per cent, what do you do?” Johnson said, pointing out Bedard may need some time to get up to speed after returning.
“But he’s healthy and playing, you can’t really pull him off just because he’s not playing as well. So that’s why he comes off. And then Sam Bennett was always going to be an option to replace a guy who was hurt,” Johnson added.
Bennett meanwhile had 15 goals and 22 points during the Florida Panthers’ repeat Stanley Cup run this spring. He’s continued to put up numbers, with 13 goals and 28 points in 38 games so far this season for Florida. He’d slide into a depth forward role as a fifth-line centre if it were up to Button and Johnson, bumping Mark Scheifele up to Bedard’s top-line spot on the right wing.
“[Scheifele is] a goal scorer, right? You want a guy who can finish and a guy who can pass and a guy who can also be physical. We’ve seen when Mark Scheifele is in that mood he can be a forechecker, turn pucks over, take pucks out, and I imagine that line will be used largely offensively,” Johnson said.
Scheifele has shown no signs of slowing down and is currently tied with Kyle Connor for the Winnipeg Jets’ team-lead in goals (18) and points (45) this season.
In net, it’s Binnington’s continued struggles that have dropped him from Team Canada according to Button and Johnson. The Richmond Hill, Ont., native has an .870 save percentage and a 3.44 goals against average in 23 games for the Blues this season, ceding the majority of the starts lately to teammate Joel Hofer.
“It’s about performance, right? And so we know what Jordan Binnington did. What he hasn’t done is played at any acceptable level for anybody to have confidence that he should be the starting goalie for Canada. And people go, what about the third? What happens if you need your third? You want a guy playing at that level? We don’t,” Button said.
“We gave him three months. Three months to get to a level where he could give us a reason to put him on the team. He’s not even the starter on St. Louis right now, Joel Hofer is the starter. So, we had to pull him off. Mackenzie Blackwood is the best goalie on the best team, has got great numbers and played well so he’s in there,” Johnson said.
Blackwood slides onto Button and Johnson’s roster as the third goaltender behind Logan Thompson and Darcy Kuemper, who were Nos. 2 and 3 on the Dec. 11 consensus roster, respectively, behind Binnington.
Nineteen spots are up for grabs during Canada’s roster reveal Wednesday, which will take place over video conference in Minneapolis, the site of the 2026 World Junior Championship. Six players were named to the Olympic roster over the summer. Sidney Crosby will go for his third Olympic gold medal alongside Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart, Brayden Point and Cale Makar.
Canada has won the last two Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014 that featured NHL talent. They were held to bronze in 2018 and finished off the podium in the most recent Winter Games in 2022.
The Olympics begin on Feb. 6 and the men’s hockey gold-medal game will take place on Feb. 22.
