Part II: The Implications

Welcome to part two of the breakdown of the 2025 U18 Canadian Women’s National Championship! In the first part, I got to tell the story about just how historic the tournament was. Now we’re going to get into which players have put themselves on the inside track for a roster spot come January 2026 for the 2026 IIHF U18 Women’s World Hockey Championships. So enjoy this piece, remember the names, and tune in January 10th, 2026, for the first day of U18 Worlds in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Team Canada Implications

While I’m sure Vicky Sunohara, her coaching staff, and the Hockey Canada scouting staff enjoyed their time watching the tournament as much as the fans did, that’s not why they were there. As fun as it was watching the drama unfold, there’s still a job to be done and that’s win gold on home ice in Cape Breton in January 2026. Unless there’s a surprise addition out of the NCAA (like Juliette Thibault who is a 2008 birth year playing in the NCAA) or just in general out of nowhere, this tournament featured Canada’s U18 Worlds team just spread among the different eight teams.

It’s up to Sunohara to choose who to bring to Cape Breton and she doesn’t get the benefit of a lot of returnees from the 2025 U18 Worlds gold medal team. Kate Viel and Anais Leprohon are the only two blueliners eligible to return. Half of their forward corps can return in Sofia Ismael, Alida Korte, Maddie McCullough, Hayley McDonald, Rachel Piggot, Caileigh Tiller, and Rosalie Tremblay. Maybe the most interesting part of all is that the goalies are going to be completely new.

For the summer showcase, Team Canada brought Avah Sedore, Lea-Rose Charrois, and Rowan Houweling in net to play against the USA. Of the three of them Charrois had the only win and made 25 of 26 saves. One game isn’t going to earn you a spot on Team Canada, so Charrois decided to just be great for a whole tournament. She finished first in tournament save percentage (0.948) and was in net for the gold medal game, making 23 of 24 saves for the win. I think it’s safe to say at this point she’s on the team.

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As for Sedore and Houweling, they left the door open for another goalie, maybe a second, to take spots on Team Canada. They’re still both good goalies who will go back to their teams and continue being good. But on the big stage in front of the people making decisions for the January roster, I’m sure they’re wishing they had a bit better showing. If there’s a goalie who is going to push for a spot, I think Maija St-Pierre of Team Ontario-Blue made the biggest push. She finished second in tournament save percentage (0.946), was named the tournament’s best goalie, and currently has a 0.922 save percentage playing for the best team in the OWHL. St-Pierre is also 2009-born, so if the coaching staff wants a goalie to gain experience, that’s another point in her favour.

As mentioned above, Kate Viel and Anais Leprohon are the only blueliners eligible to return from the 2025 U18 Worlds Gold Medal team. It’s a slam dunk bet that both are back on the team in January. I think another slam dunk bet is Megan Mossey off Team Atlantic, who looks to be another great Canadian future blueliner. It’s not hard to imagine her in a few years vying for a spot on the senior national team. She has good size at 5’ 9”, is a good skater, is strong, showed good defensive abilities, and is a PP goal scorer from the point. Mossey should be a feature on the Canadian PP in January, and just in the top four in general. They have a very good player in Mossey.

Another blueliner to keep an eye on as a potential surprise add is Jordan Mulvihill. A dynamic offensive blueliner who wasn’t on the extended Team Canada summer showcase roster, she was invited to play for Team Ontario-Blue at the U18 Nationals. She has 15 points in 14 games in the OWHL, making her one of the top scoring blueliners. And in the bronze medal game versus Team Ontario-Red, she really showed off her skill, getting an assist as well as the overtime bronze medal-winning goal.

I know Ontario-Red had a disappointing end to the tournament, but overall, I thought their blueline had a lot of mobility and good puck movement. They just couldn’t finish enough to win either of the last two games. Two players in particular who stood out are Chelsea Tiller and Keira Owen, who look like they’ll fit into the Team Canada mould of being mobile, skilled puck movers. With Sunohara back behind the bench, you can bet there will once again be an emphasis on puck movement from the blueliners.

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When it comes to the forwards Sunohara and company must be giddy with excitement at what they’ll be able to put together. All the returning forwards did what they were supposed to do and looked good doing it. Rosalie Tremblay had been a consistent producer for Team Quebec the past two tournaments. Then, this year, she was just a level above everyone else, earning nine points in six games and being named the U18 Nationals MVP. McCullough was a very consistent producer for Team Ontario-Red with eight points in six games, and she’s at 1.933 points per game in the OWHL.

Then you have Alida Korte, who looks like a puck possession monster. She’s hard to knock off the puck and able to play along the boards. Sofia Ismael was being Sofia Ismael and just zooming around the ice being an annoyance to everyone. Everyone was just doing what they should have been doing. As weird as it is to say that there’s a veteran corps on a U18 team, Canada looks like they’ll be bringing a veteran corps to Cape Breton in January that will live up to expectations.

As for the rest of the roster and new players vying for spots, Sunohara and her staff certainly have their pick of the litter. This was a tournament filled with excellent top lines, and arguably, the best top line was Tremblay flanked by Loelie Lachapelle and Madison Levesque. That Team Quebec line looked great together, were always dangerous on the ice, and just dominated their opponents.

Team Atlantic was powered by an elite top line of their own with Kendall Doiron, Jaylee MacKinnon, and Hali Rose Maclean. I’m not sure about Maclean making the team, but Doiron and MacKinnon should be locks. MacKinnon will most likely be in a bottom six role, which is just fine. She’s great on the forecheck and just an absolute puck hound. As for Doiron, remember her name. Doiron has all the skill you could ask for and has the ability to be a game breaker for Canada in Cape Breton.

Once again, despite Team Ontario-Red having a disappointing finish to their tournament, they had three players who stood out and will have an inside track to making the national team at the very least. Annabella Van Berkel and Grace Van Volsen have been tearing up the OWHL, which translated to the U18 Nationals. The third player? Arianna Milani. She’s the real deal despite being somewhat snake-bitten at the tournament. Calling Milani a dynamic offensive player might be an understatement. She’s a 5’ 4”, ’09-born player, so it’s hard to put too much pressure on her right now. But if you want to see a forward make a push for Caitlin Kraemer’s record, Milani is probably the best bet to do so if she can live up to the hype.

The future continues to be bright for Team Canada. And these players certainly want to be part of a future that includes a Gold Medal in Cape Breton in January 2026. Last U18 Worlds, Canada came in playing a heavy possession-style game. They wanted to be able to get to the hard areas of the ice, be as physical as they can be, and keep pushing the play up the ice. If Sunohara wants to repeat that style this year, she’s going to have that option. Make sure to tune in January 10^th, 2026 for the start of the U18 Worlds and what should be another very entertaining tournament, where everyone tries to avoid being upset by Slovakia.