McKenna headlines Canada's team-first roster for world junior hockey championship

Hockey Canada is building a world junior team designed to win, not necessarily dazzle.

Gavin McKenna headlined the 27 players Hockey Canada invited to its world junior training camp on Monday ahead of the 2026 international tournament in Minnesota. The Penn State freshman is one of six returnees from last year’s fifth-place roster, joining Cole Beaudoin, Carter George, Jack Ivankovic, Jett Luchanko and Porter Martone.

General manager Allan Millar said at a news conference in downtown Toronto that this year's roster is being built with team play in mind.

"It's not an all-star team. We have to build what is really a true team," said Millar in his opening remarks. "Part of that is understanding the level. The world junior championship is hard. It's hard to win. 

"There is a type of player and a type of person that you need to help you win at this level. As a group, you need to have a vision and a mindset of what you need when it's the hardest, when you're playing those most important games, when it's tough, when you're going through adversity."

Six players who have already appeared in the NHL — Harrison Brunicke, Braeden Cootes, Luchanko, Brady Martin, Michael Misa and Zayne Parekh — were on the camp list.

Hockey Canada originally intended to invite 24 players — a set roster — but injuries, the reluctance of some NHL teams to release their age-eligible players, and the impressive play of others led to the national sport organization expanding the invite list by three. Millar said that a forward, a defenceman, and a goalie will be cut from the team by Dec. 22.

"We build our team around skill, speed, smarts and sense and compete. We prioritize hard skill over soft skill," said Millar. "Players that are only good with time and space play on the perimeter. They don't compete, don't help you win. 

"We want players that play hard, get on the inside, finish their checks, go to the net, get into the hard areas."

Canada, which lost in the quarterfinal at last year's tournament in Ottawa, opens the world junior hockey championship on Dec. 26 against Czechia at 3M Arena in Minneapolis.

Mark Hunter, the under-20 lead with Hockey Canada's program of excellence management group, said that humility was going to be a tenet of the team for the upcoming tournament.

"I think it's important that ourselves and the players don't get ahead of themselves," said Hunter. "We've got to be hopeful and humble. I think that's kind of got to be our motto, making sure we keep our feet on the ground and understand what we need to do to win games.

"Of course, to win games, it's team play. It's not individuals."

Dale Hunter, the longtime London Knights coach, will lead Canada behind the bench. He said that skipping the selection process and getting straight into training will allow him to emphasize a team structure with a fleshed out power play and penalty kill. 

Hunter also said that it helps that most of the players on the roster have represented Canada at other international youth tournaments, like the under-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

"I've watched the kids play in the different tournaments at 18 and 17, and you can see the kids playing a system," said Hunter. "To win, you just don't happen to win with the best players. You win with good players playing the right structure. 

"Then you get to see also who plays well together, like there's always a chemistry. They played well in the Hlinka tournament together, so it gives me more ideas on who to play with who and who not."

Canada's training camp runs Dec. 12-22 at Gale Centre Arena in Niagara Falls, Ont., and includes pre-tournament games against Sweden in Kitchener, Ont., and London, Ont., and Denmark in Minnesota.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2025.