Canada Has Chosen it’s 2025 U18 WJC Revenge Roster

Going into the 2024 U18 WJC, Canada was sending a powerhouse unit that won Gold the year before and adding standouts such as Chloe Primerano to the roster. Primerano, Sara Manness, and Claire Murdoch were adding to a roster already featuring Caitlin Kraemer, Hannah Clark, Abby Stonehouse, Gracie Graham, Mackenzie Alexander, etc. The expectation was Gold.

They looked fantastic early on in the tournament. They outscored their round robin opponents 29-1 while the USA in Pool B only outscored their opponents 19-2 in comparison. The domination wasn’t stopping as Canada cruised past the host Swiss 6-0 to get through to the semifinals. It was there that is all went wrong.

The Czechs played a nearly perfect bend but don’t break defensive game with some timely scoring and even more timely saves, styming the red hot Canadian offence, and giving Canada a 4-2 loss. This would send Canada to it’s second ever Bronze Medal Game at the U18’s. Despite record breaking play from Primerano and Kraemer it wasn’t enough to overcome the Czech’s team defense. The team certainly didn’t dwell on the loss in a negative fashion as a day later they would run over the Fins 8-1 to win Bronze.

Now, for the first time since 2019, Canada will be sending their revenge squad to reclaim Gold. It won’t be an easy task as the 2019 team showed. They had to win back-to-back OT games in the semifinal (vs Russia) then the Gold Medal Game (vs USA) to reclaim Gold for the red and white. When looking back on the 2019 Team Canada roster you’ll notice some familiar names such as the Gosling cousins, Danielle Serdachny, Raygan Kirk, Megan Carter, Jennifer Gardiner. Players who you’ll notice are either in the PWHL or potentially about to be drafted after good NCAA careers.

The point of the matter is that it’s not going to be easy to exact revenge even with the most talented of rosters. As we saw last year with a roster which might turn out to contain the most players to make the senior national team out of any of these U18 Canadian teams, they still didn’t win it all. We don’t know what’s in store for this 2025 squad when they take the ice in January. This could be the highlight of their careers. It doesn’t matter though as what does matter is coming together to get back to winning Gold.

The task of getting this group to reaching ultimate victory is going to fall upon Olympic Gold Medalist and current University of Toronto head coach Vicky Sunohara. Under her coaching the Varsity Blues have always been one of the better OUA teams while in the past two seasons have seen themselves have the most success they’ve had as a program in a long time. In 2023 after winning the OUA championship they finished fifth in the National Championship. At the 2024 National Championship, after being the OUA finalist, they went on an incredible run leading them to the National Championship game where they’d lose a close one 3-1 to the dominant Concordia Stingers

Being a former Team Canada star and a successful USports head coach aren’t Vicky Sunohara’s only credentials. She’s been apart of three coaching staffs for Team Canada. Once with the senior national team in 2021 then she moved to the U18 coaching staff in 2022 and in 2024. That’s two Gold Medals and a Bronze Medal. Naturally there’s going to be some apprehension about a coach being promoted from the staff that managed to finish third with that talented of a roster. Especially if she was the coach in charge of the power play and made the decision to keep Primerano off the first unit. While this is a roster made for revenge though for the coaching staff it’s a chance at redemption. The advantage here for Sunohara is she saw up-close and personal where it all went wrong at the 2024 U18 WJC’s. It’s up to her now to show that lessons have been learned and taken care of moving forward.

As good of a coach Sunohara can be, unless you have a talented roster it doesn’t really matter how good at coaching you are. Luckily for Sunohara she’s still going to have a talented roster to work with. How talented and who is going to lead the charge? Let’s get into to it starting with the goalies because the goalies are always left to the end.

Marilou Grenier is the only returnee goalie on the roster and she didn’t see any ice time for Team Canada at the 2024 U18 WJC. I’m very excited to see her get this opportunity to represent Canada on the big stage. The obvious upside to her is she also got to witness what went wrong for Canada to end up in the Bronze Medal Game. The not so obvious upside is she’s arguably the best Canadian goalie in her age group. Grenier led Team Quebec to the 2023 and 2024 U18 Nationals only to lose both games to Ontario Red in heartbreaking fashion, a 3-2 OT loss and then a 1-0 loss. She’s going to be hungry for a big win and she has the skill to make it happen.

Behind her are two very talented goalies themselves. Ava Drabnyk was instrumental in helping Saskatchewan to one of it’s best finishes at the U18 Nationals sporting a 0.942 SV%, took Quebec to a shootout, and made 31/34 stops in a losing effort in the Bronze Medal Game versus Team BC. The other goalie for Team Canada is Amelia Wilkinson. She’s most likely in line to be the 2G on Team Canada behind Grenier and for good reason. Earlier this fall at the U18 Nationals she posted a 0.968 SV% and two shutouts on her way to backstopping Ontario Red to a Championship win. In that Gold Medal Game vs Team Quebec Wilkinson made 35-saves to hold back a desperate Quebec offence. In the summer, during the summer series vs the US U18 team she posted a 0.944 SV%. Whoever is in net for Canada will give them an opportunity to win.

Do I even really need to point out who the big dawg on the blueline, and let’s be honest here, the whole roster? For those new around these parts it’s Chloe Primerano. Potentially the most talented player Canada has seen since Marie-Philip Poulin, Primerano has already made an incredible impact on the U18 WJC’s. At the 2024 U18’s Primerano set records while earning Tournament MVP, Best Defender, and highest tournament point scorer as accolades. All of that and she still left with a Bronze Medal. She’s transcended the U18 level so much that she joined the NCAA as a U18 player which is extremely difficult and was named to the Rivalry Series in November where she scored that beautiful shootout goal to win Game Two for Canada. She’s off to a great start in her NCAA career and coming back to the U18 WJC’s she’s expected to play an even bigger role somehow. If anyone can handle it though it’s her.

Now as good as Primerano is, and she is good, there needs to be more blueliners the team can rely on. One of those blueliners Canada will be relying upon is Danica Maynard, former teammate of Primerano and currently one of the best blueliners in the CSSHL. She’s on pace for 56 points this season which would be 10 more than last season and this is without Primerano on the RHA Kelowna roster as well.  Then you have Sydney Sawyer hailing from an Etobicoke Dolphins team that’s sending three other players to the U18 WJC’s. If you look at her OWHL stats it’s a respectable 12 points in 20 gams. At the U18 Nationals though she played a big role for the eventual champions Ontario Red finishing third on the team in primary points. Anaïs Leprohon is someone I’m personally very interested in watching. No one on the team has a better shot than Primerano but second best on the blueline most likely goes to Leprohon. If she’s allowed to get into scoring spots, she has a hard wrister goalies are going to find difficult keeping out of the net.

If there’s a theme that Canada wanted to hit on with it’s blueline it’s mobility. Even the 5’ 10” Alex Therien is quite mobile even despite having a more lanky frame. She’s not going to be expected to play a shutdown role because she’s big but rather because she’s good at playing defence. That long reach and skating ability is going to make it difficult for opponents to find room to operate. A name you’ll notice is Kate Manness and yes she’s the twin sister of Sara Manness. It’s a really nice story they get to be on Team Canada together and Kate deserves it. 19 points in 23 games in the OWHL and at the U18 Nationals she led Team Manitoba in points with five. Last but not least is Kate Viel who recently won Gold with Ontario Red at the U18 Nationals. She’s certainly on theme with the rest of the defence considering her level of mobility and I’ll venture to guess they really like her decision making. She’s 16yo so this will be a learning experience for her to take into next years tournament.

If the theme on defence is mobility then the theme on forward is score goals. Maybe even more importantly be able to score timely goals. There’s no Cailtin Kraemer on the team so the goal scoring is going to need to come from everyone and maybe that’s the key to avoiding a rerun of the semifinal loss to Czechia. Stryker Zablocki was the only forward with a goal versus Czechia in the semifinal. She scored three goals and five points to push Team Saskatchewan to their best finish at the U18 Nationals in awhile including a goal in the semifinal versus Team Quebec. A Saskatchewan team that also featured Alida Korte who matched Zablocki’s five points and is the leading scorer for RHA Kelowna with 35 points in 16 games.  

You also have Riley Sorokan a speedy winger who is going to be deadly on the rush for Canada with her finishing ability but definitely isn’t afraid of going to the front of the net either.  She’s part of a strong Etobicoke Dolphins team who will also be sending Lexie Bertelsen, Ava Wood, Sofia Ismael and Rachel Piggott. They come with built in chemistry and productive performances with both the U18 National champions Ontario Red as well as the best team in the OWHL in the Etobicoke Dolphins. At the 2023 U18 WJC’s it didn’t hurt Canada to take Jocelyn Amos, Abby Stonehouse, Emmalee Pais, and Shelby Laidlaw as forwards from the London Devilettes so when you have the opportunity to take a lot of skilled players from one team it can help in short tournament such as this one.

One of the most fun parts of a tournament like this is players getting hot for two weeks and taking the opportunity to show their talent on the big stage. Caitlin Kraemer certainly made a name for herself in 2023 and Canada is hoping for someone else to step up out of nowhere. Rosalie Tremblay is an interesting name to keep an eye on. At 15 year old during the 2023 U18 Nationals, Tremblay scored four goals in six games for Team Quebec good enough for second on the team. She finished second in team points for Quebec at the 2024 U18 Nationals. Then there’s Maddie McCullough who is fourth in the OWHL among U18 players in goals per game (13 goals in 17 games) which of course fits the forward corps theme of players who can score goals. Caileigh Tiller had to take on a big role for the Burlington Barracudas and thrived. Only player on her team with double digit goals (14). Not but not least is Hayley McDonald who joins RHA Kelowna teammate Korte on the roster. McDonald is second in points on RHA Kelowna only behind Korte and at the U18 Nationals she led Team Manitoba in primary points.

Now are much as teams love a surprise performance from their players they more than likely need strong performances from those who are expected to give them. The first one that comes to mind is Sara Manness. She needs to be the play driving 1C championship teams need. Is that an unfair expectation? If she’s healthy I don’t think it’s unfair. Last season in the OWHL she put up 100 points in 39 games finishing only behind Claire Murdoch and Mackenzie Alexander. Should mean good things ahead considering how successful those two are currently in the NCAA. This season Manness has 20 points in 13 games, not a meaningless number of points and we know she’s capable of more which Team Canada is also hoping she hits her stride just in time for the tournament.

The other player Canada will be relying heavily on is Maxine Cimoroni, the current PPG (30 points in 16 games) and GPG (16 goals in 16 games) OWHL leader. Like Sara Manness, Cimoroni was on the 2024 Canadian U18 team and with the level of production she’s shown this year the expectation is step up to be a production leader. She certainly did so at the U18 Nationals finishing third on Ontario Red in points and primary points. Then if you go back to the summer during the summer series vs the US, Cimoroni tied for first in points with Primerano among all players from both teams. Cimoroni has been called upon this season to produce and it’s hard to argue that she hasn’t. This should bode well for the upcoming U18 WJC’s.

If you’ve been keeping track of the forwards covered so far you’ll notice there’s one left to cover and I’ve purposefully left it that way. At the end of the day hockey is hockey and physicality plays a part. During the 2023 U18 WJC, that impressive run by Canada almost ended in the semifinal as they were losing 2-1 at one point to Finland and ended up in OT. If not for Alex Law scoring the tying goal and then the OT game winning goal that 2023 Canadian team isn’t looked back as fondly as it is. As cliché as it is, teams do need a player or two like Law who will physically make an impact which can lead to goals in important moments. This years Alex Law is her former teammate Dorothy Copetti. She’s not going to be a big point producer but she will push her way to the front of the net and score goals. Copetti led the U18 Nationals in goals (five), points (tied with six), and primary points (six). Copetti has the potential to be a two-way monster and if she can be that for Canada, they’ve found their all important Alex Law.

For Canadian viewers all Canada and USA round robin matches will be broadcast on TSN along with every single elimination game and medal round game starting with the quarterfinal. Placement games will not be televised by TSN.