Admit it. Your group chat was littered with your best bets for what the Team Canada Olympic roster would look like when it was officially announced on New Years Day, 2026.
You tinkered with line combinations, dropped guys entirely out of the running, and text about whether the Canada brass will lean on experience or youth with those bubble spots.
The conversation around young stars has evolved from will one of Connor Bedard or Macklin Celebrini make the roster, to both, to the two of them potentially being joined by the incredible teenaged Matthew Schaefer on the back end.
Milano Cortina 2026 has no shortage of armchair GMs. We didn't know for sure until Doug Armstrong and his staff make the announcement on January 1st.
But what about the 2030 Games, set in the beautiful French Alps? What players certainly WON’T be on the 2026 team, but have the best chance to crack the roster four years from now? Here, for my money, are the top five candidates.
Gavin McKenna
Age at 2030 Olympics: 22
No pressure, kid. Though, if Gavin McKenna felt pressure, we would have seen it by now. After all, at 17 years old, he has been the talk of the hockey world.
Let’s see. 244 points in 133 Western Hockey League games, including a point streak of (checks notes, closes laptop, gets a glass of water, splashes water in eyes, returns to laptop, says five Hail Mary’s) FIFTY FOUR GAMES.
Making the leap to the NCAA’s Penn State prior to the 2025 campaign, he is using his generational talent to register more than a point per game with the Nittany Lions, and is expected to be a slam-dunk first overall selection in the 2026 Draft.
If the success of Matthew Schaefer, Macklin Celebrini, and Connor Bedard has taught us anything, it’s that some of the kids just have it. We don’t know where he will be playing. But I expect to see him in Canada colours in February, 2030.
Wyatt Johnston
Age at 2030 Olympics: 26
If it feels like Wyatt Johnston has been in our lives for a long time, you have been paying attention. A full-time NHLer as a 19-year-old, Johnston has gotten better…and better…and better.
Picked 23rd overall in the 2021 draft, Johnston has posted 41, 65, and 71 points in his three seasons, scoring 24, 32, and 33 goals. And if you want proof that he can compete in high-stakes hockey, look no further than the 56 NHL playoff games he has competed in before he turned 22 years old.
Hockey Canada has had its eye on the Toronto product for years, but he was in the NHL when he could have been selected to the World Junior team, and has made the Western Conference final every year of his pro career, erasing any chance to have him on the World Championship roster.
Johnston is versatile, can play centre or on the wing, and his defensive acumen gives him the opportunity to play up and down Canada’s lineup in 2030.
Dylan Guenther
Age at 2030 Olympics: 26
It’s time you watch some Utah Mammoth hockey. If you do, it won’t take long for #11 in black, white, and “mountain blue” to stand out. Dylan Guenther is coming off a 27 goal, 60 point season as a 21-year-old, where he played in all situations for Andre Tourigny’s team.
Consider his experience with Team Canada. He played in the World Juniors in 2023, earning gold with 8 goals and 7 assists in 10 games. Just one year later, he suited up for Canada in the World Championships as a 20 year old. Add that to a pair of Western Hockey League Championships, and the resume is sneaky stacked for the Edmonton native.
The 9th overall selection in 2021 plays with great speed, and his release is the type to give NHL netminders nightmares for many years. His name doesn’t carry the can’t miss weight like a McKenna, but he has the highest points per game of anyone in the 2021 draft class, and is only improving. Put him on a bottom six wing in 2030.
Quinton Byfield
Age at 2030 Olympics: 27
If you’re a hockey nerd, you have probably gone back on YouTube, or thrown on your own VHS’s (this makes you a nostalgic hockey nerd), and watched Canada compete in best-on-best hockey. What stands out? It is nearly impossible to ignore the size of the Canadian forwards. The 2002 team had guys like Lindros, Iginla, Nolan, and Shanahan. The gold-winning 2010 roster had Thornton, Nash, Getzlaf, Morrow. 2014, add Benn and Carter to that mix. The point is, Canada has a type. Quinton Byfield is that type.
6-foot-5, 225 lbs of speed, hands, and mass. Twice a member of Canada at the World Juniors, it took awhile for the hulking pride of Newmarket to find his footing at the NHL level. But the #2 pick in the 2020 draft is coming off back to back 20-goal, 50-point seasons with the Los Angeles Kings. He fits the mold, and if he keeps progressing, Byfield will don the maple leaf in 2030.
Owen Power
Age at 2030 Olympics: 27
If you were a kid (or an adult with childlike wonderment) who used to create players on the NHL video games, you know the sheer delight of developing an unrealistically big, fast, talented player who stood out like a glorious sore thumb when it got to trying them on the ice. Maybe he was a teenager, standing 6-foot-6, weighing 230 lbs, who could skate like the wind, and was good with the puck.
Well, jokes on you EA Sports…he exists.
For those who wanted Chris Pronger when Owen Power was selected first overall in the 2021 draft, you may be disappointed at the relative lack of bite in the Mississauga product’s game.
But at 23 years old, he has already played 250 career games, eating major minutes for the Sabres, and registering 35, 33, and 40 points.
And he is no stranger to Team Canada. He won gold at the 2021 World Championships as an 18-year-old, played for Canada in the 2022 Olympic Games, and returned to Canada’s blueline in the 2024 WCs.