We’re officially eight days away from the start of the 2025 IIHF World Championship, which will be held in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark from Friday, May 9th to Sunday, May 25th.
After a somewhat disappointing tournament last year, with them not medalling for the first since 2018, Canada is looking to bounce back in a big way at the 2025 IIHF World Championship as Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas has been tasked with putting together the team’s roster.
Hockey Canada names first 15 players to IIHF World Championship roster
On Thursday, as the team gets ready for pre-tournament games in Vienna, Austria and Budapest, Hungary, Hockey Canada has announced their initial roster for the tournament, which features 15 players – 9 forwards, 5 defensemen and 1 goaltender.
Canada’s forward group is young and is headlined by 2024 first overall pick Macklin Celebrini, 2023 third overall pick Adam Fantilli and 2021 fifth overall pick Kent Johnson.
4 Nations Face-Off winner Travis Konecny, along with veteran forward Bo Horvat and Ryan O’Reilly bring plenty of experience to the Canadian roster, with the 2025 tournament being O’Reilly’s seventh World Championship.
On the blue line, Canada has the makings of a solid top-four which features MacKenzie Weegar, Noah Dobson, Travis Sanheim and Brandon Montour.
Meanwhile between the pipes, Hockey Canada has named just one goaltender to their roster so far and that’s Dylan Garand – a New York Rangers prospect who appeared at the 2021 and 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Canada’s initial roster
Forwards:
- Macklin Celebrini (San Jose Sharks – NHL)
- Will Cuylle (New York Rangers – NHL)
- Adam Fantilli (Columbus Blue Jackets – NHL)
- Tyson Foerster (Philadelphia Flyers – NHL)
- Barrett Hayton (Utah Hockey Club – NHL)
- Bo Horvat (New York Islanders – NHL)
- Kent Johnson (Columbus Blue Jackets – NHL)
- Travis Konecny (Philadelphia Flyers – NHL)
- Ryan O’Reilly (Nashville Predators – NHL)
Defensemen
- Noah Dobson (New York Islanders – NHL)
- Ryker Evans (Seattle Kraken – NHL)
- Brandon Montour (Seattle Kraken – NHL)
- Travis Sanheim (Philadelphia Flyers – NHL)
- MacKenzie Weegar (Calgary Flames – NHL)
Goaltender
- Dylan Garand (Hartford Wolf Pack – AHL)
Meet the first 1⃣5⃣ players who will wear the 🍁 at #MensWorlds!
Voici un premier groupe de 1⃣5⃣ joueurs qui porteront la 🍁 au #MondialMasculin!
ROSTER: https://t.co/MFsEq2UcU5
FORMATION : https://t.co/heJziXAoqx pic.twitter.com/crwW9ky5LH— Hockey Canada (@HockeyCanada) May 1, 2025
For those wonder, why only 15 players right now? Hockey Canada will be adding more to their roster in the coming days with the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs concluding, at the latest, on Sunday night. As of Thursday, Hockey Canada has 10 available spots on their World Championship roster.
Among the players to keep an eye on in the next few days include Nick Suzuki and Kaiden Guhle of the Montreal Canadiens, Nick Paul, Anthony Cirelli and Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning, as well as Dougie Hamilton and Jake Allen of the New Jersey Devils. Depending on health, Montreal Canadiens goaltender Samuel Montembeault and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel could also be options.
Hockey Canada invites 7, including 2025 top draft prospect Porter Martone for pre-tournament camp
In addition to their initial roster, Hockey Canada has also invited seven players – 3 from the Canadian Hockey League and 4 from Europe – to attend their pre-tournament camp and play in exhibition games against Austria and Hungary on May 4th and May 6th, respectively.
The two most notable names are Porter Martone of the Brampton Steelheads (OHL) and Zayne Parekh of the Saginaw Spirit (OHL), who made his NHL debut with the Calgary Flames on April 17th.
- Porter Martone (Brampton Steelheads – OHL)
- Zayne Parekh (Saginaw Spirit – OHL)
- Harrison Brunicke (Kamloops Blazers – WHL)
- Nicolas Beaudin (HC Brno Kometa – Czech Extraliga)
- Zach Boychuk (Eisbaren Berlin – DEL)
- Brendan Perlini (HC Lausanne – NL)
- Ty Ronning (Eisbaren Berlin – DEL)
Following their training camp, Canada will head to Stockholm, Sweden to prepare for their first game of the tournament, which is set for Saturday, May 10th against Slovenia at 6:20 am ET (12:20 pm local).
In the preliminary round, Canada will also face Latvia (May 11th – 10:20 am ET), France (May 13th – 2:20 pm ET), Austria (May 15th – 2:20 pm ET), Slovakia (May 17th – 2:20 pm ET), Finland (May 19th – 2:20 pm ET) and Sweden (May 20th – 2:2o pm ET). The playoff round is set to get underway on Thursday, May 22nd and will conclude on Sunday, May 25th with the bronze and gold medal games.
As I’ve done in recent years, I will be covering the tournament here on my site with a preview article coming next Thursday (May 8th), along with more in-depth daily recaps than years past. If you love international hockey and the IIHF World Championship as much as I do, I suggest you follow along!