Key Takeaways
- Team Canada is preparing for the 2026 world junior championship with a strong roster and experienced goalies.
- Carter George, one of the returnees from last year’s team, is looking to help restore Canada’s pride at the tournament and prove himself as a top goalie.
- The team has a lot of skill and experience, with six players who were top-10 picks and a half-dozen guys with at least one game of NHL experience.
- Canada is looking to change its approach and reclaim top spot in the U-20 hockey world after bowing out at the quarterfinal stage in each of the past two tournaments.
- The team has an unfinished-business element, with many players looking to prove themselves and make a statement at the tournament.
Introduction to Team Canada’s Preparation
Team Canada had a long practice the day before its first 2026 world junior championship pre-tournament game in mid-December. As preparations for the coming WJC ramped up, the club worked on every facet of the game, including shootouts. No roster cuts had been made at this point, and every player got a chance to shoot on goalies Carter George, Jack Ivankovic, and Joshua Ravensbergen. The rules were simple: if a shooter misses, he’s done, and if he scores, he shuffles over to the boards and waits to shoot again in Round 2. For goalies, you stay in the crease if you make the save, and if not, you swap out for one of the other guys until they get beat.
Shootout Drill and Goalie Performance
All three goalies had been duped once when George glided in for his second twirl in the crease. Roughly a third of the skaters had not made their first attempt yet, and one-by-one, they came down on George and failed to find a way past the goalie. Finally, the only skaters remaining were the three guys who had managed to score on their first attempt: Michael Hage, Gavin McKenna, and Marek Vanacker. Hage came down first and found no opening, McKenna was next and he stickhandled himself into the mud trying to outwit George, and finally, Vanacker swooped in to the dramatic drumbeat of nearly 40 sticks being slapped on the ice in unison. The slick sniper made a brilliant backhand-forehand move that fooled George, but the goalie whipped his blocker hand out, smacked his own stick paddle on the ice, and snatched all bragging rights away from Vanacker.
Canada’s Recent Performance and Roster
It’s fair to say good fortune has not been on Canada’s side of late at the WJC, as the Red and White have almost unthinkably bowed out at the quarterfinal stage in each of the past two tournaments. Of course, the team’s fate has been dictated by far more than bad bounces, and Canada will have to change something in its approach to reclaim top spot in the U-20 hockey world. A roster riddled with first-round picks and a decent amount of NHL experience creates optimism for the 2026 event, which kicks off in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minn. The skill and experience Canada has in the crease, though, may wind up being as big a factor as any when it comes to writing a happy ending.
Goalie Carter George’s Role and Motivation
As the guy who made four appearances for Canada last year and posted a.936 save percentage, George begins this WJC with the inside track on starting big games. It’s a golden opportunity for him to help restore Canada’s pride at the tournament and maybe even help change a broader national conversation about goaltending the 19-year-old finds infuriating. George may have been able to thwart many of his teammates in a shootout drill, but by no means does that indicate a lack of talent among the Canadian crew. The team has an incredible amount of skill, with all forwards being first-round picks except for McKenna, who is sure to be a top-three selection at the 2026 NHL Draft.
Team Canada’s Experience and Motivation
Canada has six players who were top-10 picks and a half-dozen guys with at least one game of NHL experience. While Canada has no returning defencemen, Zayne Parekh, a snub last year, is a top-notch offensive talent, and hulking Keaton Verhoeff could wind up being the No. 1 selection in June. The four returning players up front are McKenna, Jett Luchanko, Cole Beaudoin, and Porter Martone, who were there last winter in Ottawa when Matthew Schaefer broke his collarbone in the second game of the event. From there, Canada struggled to score and stay disciplined in the round robin. Facing Czechia for a second straight year in the quarterfinals, Canada fought to find an equalizing goal with fewer than five minutes remaining in the third, only to see the clear underdog strike back and score a game-winning, power-play marker on George with 39 ticks left on the clock.
Canada’s Determination to Succeed
A tournament like that leaves scars and teaches some lessons. "There’s a bunch of learning experiences we all gained from last year that we can bring to this year and make sure that doesn’t happen again," said Martone, a power forward picked sixth overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2025. "Adversity, how to battle adversity; that’s something we can do better with this year. You should have humility. Being humble, being a humble team, always be prepared to go against anyone." Even if many of the 2026 players weren’t there to experience it, there’s no question losing the way Canada has the past couple years ignited a fire under the collective tush of the team. And you have to believe more than one very skilled guy on the club is playing with a chip.
Carter George’s Passion and Goal
As noted, both Parekh and Misa, the latter being 2025’s second-overall pick to San Jose, are lead horses on the team now after being left off one year ago when they were torching the OHL. Then there’s McKenna, who carried unquestioned top billing for the 2026 draft for years, really, until recent weeks when Verhoeff and Sweden’s Ivar Stenberg began getting a lot of smoke. If McKenna wants to show he’s still the top draft-eligible prospect in the world, this is the stage to do it. From the super-skilled winger on down, there sure feels like an unfinished-business element to this Canadian outfit. "I think we all have an extra level of motivation after last year," George said. One thing that also puts a burr in George’s saddle is the fact that — especially in a year when a best-on-best Olympic tournament follows the WJC in short order — there are ongoing conversations about a crease crisis in Canada.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
While the guy taken 57th overall by the L.A. Kings in 2024 can’t change the talk about the senior national team quite yet, he’s more than willing to go to bat for his Canadian goalie brethren. "It kind of pisses me off whenever I hear that," he says of the idea Canada has stopped producing high-end stoppers. "There are a lot of good goalies here in Canada, and I think that’s kind of … (expletive). For me, I just personally hate when people say that, and I think there are lots of good guys out there in Canada, and I think we do a pretty good job of developing goalies." He may not be a finished product yet, but George is already evidence of that. He got lots of action as a U-16 player tending goal on an triple-A team in his native Thunder Bay, Ont., that was often overmatched. Owen Sound grabbed him in the 2022 OHL Priority Selection, and it didn’t take long for Attack general manager Dale DeGray to figure out the club hit on a good one. With George backing an extra-driven Canadian squad, it just might be this year.