Women's Hockey
Since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport, Team Canada’s preparation for the tournament has followed a similar rhythm.
In August, national team hopefuls would move to Calgary, where they’d live and train for a grueling six-month tryout leading into the Olympics. What was known as “centralization” was designed to push players to their limits and had been fine-tuned over two decades, aiding Canada to five of seven gold medals.
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“We had the perfect template,” said Gina Kingsbury, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and now the general manager of Team Canada. “I think the amount of volume, the amount of connection we’ve been able to create, just the time spent together has always allowed us to elevate our game for the Olympic Games.”
But now, with the Professional Women’s Hockey League entering its third season in the lead-up to the 2026 Olympics, selection for Team Canada and the preparation to win gold in Milan will be dramatically different.
Instead of bringing prospective players to one location for an extensive period of time, Hockey Canada will host several “training blocks” across the country, starting with an Olympic orientation that kicks off on Tuesday — along with Canada’s men’s and para hockey teams — followed by a two-week training camp for the women’s team in Calgary.
Players will meet for another training block in Toronto at the end of September, then again in October in Montreal. In November, Canada and the United States will face off in the first two games of the 2025 Rivalry Series in Cleveland (Nov. 6) and Buffalo (Nov. 8). After that, players are expected to head to their respective PWHL teams for training camp and will reunite with Team Canada in December during the first international break of the season for the final two Rivalry Series games. Those games will be hosted in Canada, but locations and dates have yet to be announced.
“The landscape has shifted and now we’ve got to be a little bit more innovative and change some things,” Kingsbury said. “To me, that’s an opportunity to do it even better than we’ve done it in the past.”
Earlier this month, Hockey Canada announced 30 players had been selected for the training blocks and Rivalry Series, including veterans like captain Marie-Philip Poulin, and several newcomers competing to make their first Olympic team, such as Toronto forward Daryl Watts and 18-year-old defender Chloe Primerano. The roster will ultimately be cut down to 23 players for Milan.
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A player outside the pre-selected group may pop enough during the PWHL season to hit Hockey Canada’s radar. The training camp player pool already reflects the idea that PWHL performance matters for Hockey Canada; Watts and Sophie Jaques weren’t on the national team until women’s worlds in April, but have emerged as stars in the league and are now in the mix.
“The PWHL has given the athletes the platform to showcase themselves against best-on-best,” said Kingsbury. “It has definitely opened the door for national team selection.”
While the U.S. hasn’t officially announced its player pool or training schedule yet, it’s anticipated to have a monthly training camp schedule similar to Canada.
This new Olympic training plan has been in the works since the PWHL’s inception in January 2024. International breaks are nothing new for the league, which took three last year for various events, including the Rivalry Series and Women’s World Championship. But an Olympic break will be a first for the PWHL, and will likely be much longer than any previous hiatus. The tournament itself is 15 days from Feb. 5-19, and ideally, national teams will get some extra time off for a training camp before the games begin.
The exact length of the Olympic break is not yet finalized. According to Jayna Hefford, the PWHL’s executive vice president of hockey operations, conversations are ongoing and collaborative between the league and the federations.
“We all have the same interests in terms of growing the game, and we think it’s incredibly important that the players get to represent their country,” Hefford said. “It’ll be a long break during the Olympics, but (the tournament) presents an opportunity to tell our story and have people understand where all these players play and hopefully bring in new fans to the game.”
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For Canada, building out the actual training plan has been a delicate balance between Olympic preparations and ensuring players stay healthy throughout a hectic 2025-26 season.
In past years, players would arrive at centralization and hit the ground running to peak for the Games in February. Now they’ll need to prepare to be at their best in Milan, while playing in a 30-game regular season that now includes west coast travel to play the PWHL’s newest teams in Seattle and Vancouver.
“This season is the definition of a marathon,” said Montreal Victoire defender Erin Ambrose, who won Olympic gold with Canada in 2022. “The plan — if I make the team — is to peak in February. Then peak again for the playoffs.”
The first training block this week will focus on team-building and easing players into the long season. Team Canada staff will be monitoring players’ training closely, as well as how they manage the workload leading into the season and into Milan.
“We’ll maximize the time that we spend together both on and off the ice and hopefully take what has served us well from centralization,” said Kingsbury. “But also be mindful that we know it’s going to be a busy and hectic year and a big grind for our athletes.”
It will likely serve Canada well to have several staff members involved in the PWHL and the national team. Kingsbury and head coach Troy Ryan are the GM and coach of the Toronto Sceptres. Canada’s strength and conditioning coach, Vicki Bendus, is also the strength coach for the Montreal Victoire.
With less than six months until the Olympics, the hope is that with the training blocks and playing in a best-on-best environment in the PWHL, Team Canada will be as prepared as usual — if not better — for Milan.
“Something different doesn’t mean it’s less,” said Kingsbury.
In some ways, the preparation might actually be improved. In previous centralization years, Canadian women would play against local men’s triple-A or junior-A teams to get more game experience together. This year, players on Canada and the United States — and some international rosters — will spend several months on their PWHL teams playing against top competition.
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If the last few Women’s World Championships are any indication, the PWHL — and having a consistent training environment and meaningful competition throughout the season — has raised the game at the international level. “I expect hockey will be better than it’s ever been,” said Hefford.
There might also be a psychological benefit to this new process. According to Hefford, one of Canada’s most decorated Winter Olympic athletes with four gold medals and a silver won in 1998, centralization is “hard mentally and physically draining.”
“Day in and day out, you’re being evaluated,” she said. “There’s a toll it takes on athletes.”
Players will still be evaluated at training camp and during the PWHL season, but they might not feel as intensely scrutinized. For the most part, the day-to-day focus will be on playing well professionally — not so much about their standing on the national team depth chart.
Ambrose, who was among the final cuts from Canada’s 2018 Olympic team, said she’s excited for the training blocks and to have the opportunity to prove herself through her PWHL performance.
“It can be mentally exhausting to be trying out and under the microscope the entire season,” she said. “Whereas this year, you get to focus on doing your best with your teams in the PWHL, and I think that’s gonna allow everybody’s best to come through.”
(Top photo: Daniel DeLoach / Utica Observer-Dispatch / USA Today Network)
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Hailey Salvian is a staff writer for The Athletic covering women’s hockey and the NHL. Previously, she covered the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators and served as a general assignment reporter. Follow Hailey on Twitter @hailey_salvian
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