On Friday, Hockey Canada announced the rosters for their Olympic orientation camps. While the men’s side won’t have any representation from the Vancouver Canucks, the women’s side will feature five players from Vancouver’s newest professional hockey team.
Six players from the as-yet-unnamed PWHL Vancouver team will be at Canada’s camp: forwards Sarah Nurse, Jennifer Gardiner, and Hannah Miller, defenders Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson, and goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer.
Nurse, Thompson, and Maschmeyer were teammates on the 2022 Olympic team that won the gold medal, with Nurse leading the tournament in scoring with 18 points in 7 games, while Thompson was the top-scoring defender, with 13 points in 7 games. Maschmeyer appeared in two of the team’s seven games in 2022, posting a .957 save percentage.
“What we do here with the PWHL comes first”
Nurse and Gardiner were in Vancouver on Friday, along with Kristen Campbell, who was the third-string goaltender on Canada’s 2022 Olympic team, but was not invited to this year’s orientation camp. The three spoke about balancing the challenge of the inaugural season for an expansion franchise with the push to repeat as gold medalists at the 2026 Olympics.
“It’s definitely a delicate balance, but I think it’s very doable,” said Nurse. “I think at the end of the day, what we do here with the PWHL comes first and foremost. And what I do on the ice with Vancouver is what's going to enable me to actually be on the stage in Milan. And so my goal, obviously, is to be the best that I can be for this team, so that I can hopefully go to Milan and help Team Canada win a gold medal.”
The 23-year-old Gardiner is aiming to play in her first Olympics after leading Team Canada in goalscoring while on the top line at the most recent World Championships. But she’s also keeping her focus on excelling for her expansion team, especially because it’s in her backyard as a native of Surrey.
“It is a huge year,” said Gardiner. “There’s a lot in the next eight months to look forward to and to work for. But I think it’s motivation as well. Obviously, the Canadian Olympic team is the team that I would love to make and have dreamed to be on since I was a little girl and first got to see them play here in 2010 — just to have the opportunity to even try out for the team is a huge honour.
“But this year with the PWHL and with Vancouver is our focus: getting to play at home and use every single opportunity on the ice to make the next team and provide for our team. We’re really excited and there’s a lot to look forward to, but just trying to stay grounded and centred as well.”
“That’s what makes a championship team”
It’s somewhat of a surprise that Campbell isn’t heading to Team Canada’s orientation camp. Campbell was the PWHL’s goaltender of the year in its inaugural season and was still solid last season. At the most recent World Championships, Campbell posted a .959 save percentage and 0.67 goals against average to win all three of her starts.
Still, like her teammates, she’s putting her attention primarily on the PWHL.
“Now we have this league, the PWHL, it’s the priority,” said Campbell. “When you do get to go to international events, that’s an honour to represent your country, but I think the focus is on PWHL Vancouver when we’re here.”
Vancouver’s goaltending tandem of Campbell and Maschmeyer is looking strong, with plenty of PWHL and international experience between the pipes. Campbell is looking forward to that partnership.
“I’m really excited to play with Masch,” said Campbell. “We’ve played together for five or six years on the national team and being able to have that great relationship, not only as goalie partners but as friends outside the rink, is huge.
“I think we both are very different goaltenders, but I can learn a lot from her, and I think that’s really special, being able to bounce ideas off each other, and really be vulnerable as goalie partners, because goalie is such a hard position. Honestly, when you can have that close relationship with your goalie partner and know that you have each other’s backs, I think that’s what makes a championship team.”
How the players perform for PWHL Vancouver, of course, could be a deciding factor for Canada’s roster, with the possibility that Campbell plays her way onto the team.
“We’ve never played in an Olympics where we’ve had a professional hockey league”
While it being an Olympic year presents some challenges for PWHL Vancouver in its inaugural season, it also represents a significant opportunity. Women’s hockey has never had a bigger stage than it does now and the Olympics presents a chance for the league to shine.
All but three of the players at Canada’s Olympic orientation camp play in the PWHL, with the remaining three in the NCAA playing college hockey.
“I definitely think it's a very mutually beneficial co-relationship there,” said Nurse. “We've never played in an Olympics where we've had a professional hockey league, so it's going to be all-new territory.”
Some might dispute that statement. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), while technically an amateur association, paid players a stipend late in its existence and was in operation during the 2010, 2014, and 2018 Olympics.
The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL), which rebranded as the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) in 2021, was a professional league and ran from 2015 to 2023, so was in operation for the 2018 and 2022 Olympics.
It is certainly true, however, that this will be the first Olympics with a truly unified — and financially stable — professional league in North America.
Nurse sees the benefits as going both ways, as fans will be more familiar with the players from watching the PWHL, while also being able to gain new fans.
“You're going to have more information on players, which I think is the biggest thing,” said Nurse. “Also, the Olympics is the biggest stage in sports, and so to be able to have that platform, elevating the PWHL, is going to be pretty important.”
The question of Hannah Miller's eligibility
While Hannah Miller has been invited to Team Canada's Olympic orientation camp, her eligibility to play for Team Canada is currently up in the air.
Miller played five seasons in China for Kunlun Red Star and represented China at the 2022 Olympics, which were held in Beijing. She returned to Canada to play in the PWHL for the league's inaugural season in 2023-24, and she applied to be reinstated to Team Canada, but the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) ruled her ineligible for the 2025 World Championship.
The IIHF requires that players must not be under contract to a club in another country for 730 days before they can switch countries for international competition. Hockey Canada believed that Miller had abided by those rules ahead of the World Championship.
"We remained optimistic and believed she had met all the conditions outlined by the IIHF to represent her country," said Team Canada general manager Gina Kingsbury at the time, "including the two-year timeline around the transfer portal."
In theory, another year removed from that decision, Miller should be eligible to play for Canada at the Olympics, but Hockey Canada listed her on the camp roster with an asterisk just in case, saying, "Pending IIHF eligibility.
Miller was born in North Vancouver, B.C. and is a Canadian citizen. She finished sixth in the PWHL last season with 24 points in 29 games and could be PWHL Vancouver's first-line centre.
