On Friday (Aug. 1), Hockey Canada announced the men’s, women’s, and para hockey athletes who have been invited to its National Teams Orientation Camp, which is taking place in Calgary from Aug. 26 to 28 as part of preparations for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games. The off-ice camp will include presentations, team-building opportunities, team meetings and media opportunities.
Forty-two NHL players (26 forwards, 13 defencemen, three goalies) received invites, including four members of the Edmonton Oilers: centre Connor McDavid, wingers Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and blueliner Evan Bouchard.
Related: TSN Experts Project 3 Oilers Will Play for Canada at 2026 Olympics
McDavid already knows he’ll be competing in Italy next February: the Oilers captain is one of the first six players that Hockey Canada named to its preliminary men’s Olympic roster, along with defenceman Cale Makar and fellow forwards Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point, and Sam Reinhart.
But McDavid’s Oilers teammates will have to battle to make the cut. Olympic hockey rosters consist of 25 players (generally 14 forwards, 8 defencemen, 3 netminders), meaning only less than 60 percent of the players in Calgary will be making the trip to Milano.
Back in the Mix
At this time 12 months ago, Bouchard and Hyman were both being mentioned as very strong candidates to be part of Canada’s roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off. But neither ended up playing in the inaugural tournament last February.
Slow starts to the 2024-25 NHL season could have been part of the reason Bouchard and Hyman were left off Team Canada. But after helping Edmonton make a second consecutive run to the Stanley Cup Final, their respective stocks seem to have shot back up.
Barring injury or a major drop-off in his level of play, Toronto native Hyman seems a lock to be named to Canada’s roster, in no small part because of his history with McDavid.
In a short tournament with very little prep time, pre-existing chemistry is critical, and Hyman and McDavid have that in spades. The two have spent the better part of the last four years playing together on Edmonton’s top line, over which time Hyman has scored 179 goals in a total of 376 games (regular season and playoffs combined).
On the other hand, Bouchard sits on the proverbial bubble. The Oakville, Ont., product is a point producer but can at times be a liability in his own end. He is very capable of running Canada’s power play, but so can other Canadian blueliners who are also more defensively dependable.
Bouchard’s spot on the roster could depend on how Hockey Canada’s braintrust prioritizes offence versus defense. He has shown in the past that he can be a sound defender for stretches. If Bouchard can demonstrate that over the first couple months of the NHL season, he’ll have a better chance.
No Chance for Nuge
To be blunt, Nugent-Hopkins has no chance of making this team. If there ever was a time when the 32-year-old was among the top 14 Canadian forwards in hockey, those days are long since gone. But the fact that Hockey Canada nonetheless extended an invite to Nugent-Hopkins is a testament to how respected the Calgary native is.
The epitome of professionalism, Nugent-Hopkins can be a very valuable presence at the National Teams Orientation Camp, setting an example and providing leadership in an off-ice setting.
Where’s Skinner?
Conspicuously missing from the list of invitees is Stuart Skinner. Like Bouchard and Hyman, the Oilers netminder was being seriously considered for a 4 Nations Face-Off roster spot at this time last year. Like Bouchard and Hyman, he was left off, following early season struggles. But unlike Bouchard and Hyman, he doesn’t seem to have regained the confidence of Hockey Canada staff, which maybe isn’t a surprise, considering his play was up and down throughout the 2024-25 season, and that inconsistency continued in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
What’s noteworthy is that Hockey Canada invited only three goalies, and they are the same ones who were part of Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off team: Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault. That obviously suggests that Hockey Canada is pretty certain who the team’s netminders in Italy will be, but it’s curious that they wouldn’t invite a fourth goalie, just in case. Skinner might have been that fourth netminder.
None of this necessarily means the door is completely shut on Skinner. A lot can change between now and December when Hockey Canada is expected to unveil its Milano Cortina 2026 squad. But it’s safe to say there is no way Skinner even elbows his way into the Olympic discussions without being absolutely dynamite over the first several weeks of the 2025-26 NHL season. That starts in less than 10 weeks, when Edmonton opens its schedule against the Calgary Flames at Rogers Place on Oct. 8.
