Canada announces experience-heavy women's Olympic hockey team

The Canadian women's hockey team will not be lacking for international experience when it takes the ice at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics next month.

The 23-player roster, announced Friday, includes 20 players from the team that finished second to the United States at the 2025 World Championships in the Czech Republic and 16 from the squad that won gold at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

Marie-Philip Poulin, the captain and four-time Olympian, will be looking for her fourth gold medal. That would tie her for the most in Olympic ice hockey history -- men or women -- with a trio of fellow Canadian women.

Three of the top five goal scorers in the Professional Women's Hockey League last season are on the team -- Poulin, Brianne Jenner and Daryl Watts. The last of those three will make her Olympic debut, as will Jennifer Gardiner -- the second-leading scorer at Worlds with 10 points, two behind Poulin.

Another player with plenty of experience is Sarah Nurse, who set the record for most assists and points in a single women's Olympic tournament with 13 assists and 18 points in Beijing. She has missed much of the current PWHL season with an injury but is expected to be ready for the Olympics.

The Canadian team -- which has a record five Olympic gold medals -- opens play in Italy against Finland on Feb. 5. The United States and Canada will play in the final round of Group A play on Feb. 10. The gold medal game is scheduled for Feb. 19.

--Field Level Media