After months and months of anticipation, Hockey Canada finally announced its 25-player roster for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics on Wednesday afternoon. For the first time in over a decade, NHL players are back in the Winter Olympics.
Canada returns 19 players from its 4 Nations Face-Off tournament-winning squad, leaving just six newcomers on the Olympic team. Those six players are Macklin Celebrini (San Jose), Bo Horvat (New York Islanders), Nick Suzuki (Montreal), Tom Wilson (Washington), Darcy Kuemper (Los Angeles), and Logan Thompson (Washington).
Among the several notable players left off Canada’s Olympic roster is Chicago Blackhawks superstar Connor Bedard, who’s been out since Dec. 12 after suffering what’s believed to be a separated shoulder. Bedard is currently on injured reserve and won’t return to game action until the New Year. He’s set to be re-evaluated by the Blackhawks in the coming days.
Before the injury, Bedard was blossoming into a superstar in his third NHL season, with 44 points (19G, 25A) in 31 games. Few players were off to a more productive first two months than Bedard, as he was right in the mix for the scoring race past the quarter mark of the campaign. Seemingly every time he suited up, he found his way on the stat sheet, and he was also starting to take over games and regularly rack up multi-point performances.
Bedard recorded his first NHL hat trick right before Halloween, and then scored three goals again just 21 days later. He tallied four points on three occasions in a 16-game stretch from Oct. 28 through Nov. 30 and has accrued at least two points 11 times this year. In contrast, Bedard has failed to pick up a point in only nine games of his 31 appearances.
Even though he’s been out for nearly three weeks now, Bedard is still tied for 15th in the league in points and shares 16th in goals. Among all Canadian NHL players, Bedard also has the seventh-most points in 2025-26. As a reminder, he’s missed the Blackhawks’ last seven games.
It’s not just the offensive side of the game where Bedard has made significant strides, however. From his skating and top speed to his uptick at the faceoff dot and feistier defensive play, he’s literally improved every aspect of his game. Bedard has rapidly developed into one of the fastest players in the league and has now become a lethal weapon in transition. He’s won 47.0 percent of his face-offs after being below 39 percent as a rookie and a sophomore. And with much-improved defense, he’s turned into a true center iceman.
In essence, Bedard did everything Canada likely was looking for in his junior year, but it apparently still wasn’t enough.
With that being the case, there’s no other way to put it — Canada snubbed Bedard by leaving him off the Olympic roster. He’s absolutely one of the best 14 Canadian forwards in the NHL and played well enough this season to deserve a spot on the team.
Curiously, Canada’s GM Doug Armstrong said after the roster was announced that Bedard’s recent injury didn’t influence his decision. Then what did? Armstrong also mentioned that in early December, he chose to include Celebrini on the roster. That was when Bedard was still healthy, and at that time, he had four more goals than Celebrini, and the two were tied in points. So what gives? Armstrong did add that Bedard was under consideration until the “last second”, but if his exclusion wasn’t because of the injury, then it doesn’t make much sense.
Of course, this isn’t the first time Hockey Canada has kept a deserving up-and-coming star watching the Olympics from home. Sidney Crosby, expected to serve as Canada’s captain in February, was famously left off the 2006 roster, despite having a stellar rookie season and clearly being worthy of a spot. The Canadians have historically valued veteran experience and past exposure in high-pressure situations over young talent. That cost Crosby a position as an 18-year-old, and it’s also now happened to a 20-year-old Bedard.
All hope isn’t lost for Bedard to make the trip to Milan in a couple of months, though. There is still a chance one of the 14 forwards named to Canada’s Olympic team gets injured before the tournament begins in February. If Bedard returns in the not-so-distant future and rekindles his pre-injury form, he’ll likely be among the top injury replacement options. There’s still much that can change before the tournament arrives.
Regardless, it’s both disappointing and frustrating that Bedard didn’t get to see the fruits of his labor on New Year’s Eve. Again, he’s absolutely elevated his game to a level where this should have been a no-brainer.
Hopefully, this only adds fuel to the fire for Bedard and has him playing with an ever bigger chip on his shoulder when he returns for the Blackhawks.
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