Montour aiming for spot on Canadian Olympic team while helping improve Kraken

After a strong showing at the IIHF World Championship for Canada in the spring, Seattle Kraken defenceman Brandon Montour has set his sights on a more prestigious roster spot for Hockey Canada.

The world championship stretched from May 9-25 in Sweden and Denmark, and though Canada finished a disappointing fifth, Montour accounted for two goals and nine points over the eight games.

The tournament features some NHL players, but given the scheduled overlap, players who are participating in the NHL playoffs do not attend.

Montour was proud of his appearance for Team Canada and of the result, but acknowledged he is hoping for more with the team in 2026.

The 31-year-old joined OverDrive on TSN1050 on Wednesday to discuss his Team Canada aspirations, his first year in Seattle and his hopes for the team in the upcoming campaign.

"I think any time - especially when your season ends so early - you get an opportunity to play for Canada, the players that play in the tournament, I'm grateful to play with [Nathan MacKinnon] and [Sidney Crosby], the list goes on," Montour said.

"It didn't work out, the results weren't there but we enjoyed ourselves and the opportunity, like I said, to play with those guys and play well."

Montour's nine points tied for the lead amongst defencemen at the tournament, despite Canada playing in fewer games than four other teams due to their early exit.

Team Canada took the spotlight in February in winning the 4 Nations Face-Off, the first "best-on-best" tournament in hockey since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Canada defeated the United States in the final on Connor McDavid's overtime goal.

Montour is hoping that he can experience something like that in 2026, when Team Canada heads to Milan for the return of hockey to the Olympics.

"I think Team Canada, whenever you get a chance to play for them, play for the country [is great]," Montour said.

"Obviously Olympics is something that not a lot of people have on their radar in a sense, but the opportunity to be in the Olympics and be an Olympian, experience the whole thing as a group would be pretty extraordinary. Looking back at the 4 Nations, I was hoping my name was at least involved with it."

Montour took steps to improve his resume this past year, with his success at the world championship and in his first season in Seattle, where he scored a career-high 18 goals. Only Cale Makar, Zach Werenski and Jakob Chychrun scored more goals than Montour among defenceman a season ago.

The Brantford, Ont. native helped the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup two years ago before joining the Kraken, and has exceeded 30 points in each of the past four seasons. He was also invited to the Hockey Canada Olympic team orientation camp in Calgary earlier in August.

"I think it helps when your team is successful and playing in big games," Montour said. "I think hopefully we can start off with that, have a good start to the year and then the Olympics should be something that we look at when the time comes. To be an Olympian would be amazing and hopefully I get to show and have the opportunity to do that."

The Kraken floundered in Montour's first season with the team. After qualifying for the playoffs in the team's second season, the Kraken have faded the past two years, finishing seventh in the Pacific Division at 35-41-6 a year ago.

While the Kraken were mostly quiet in free agency, with the exception of adding defenceman Ryan Lindgren to a four-year deal, Seattle added three players via trade in the off-season to boost their offensive output in forwards Mason Marchment, Joseph Veleno and Frederick Gaudreau.

"Last year, going in, I knew a lot of the faces and after the year - we definitely underachieved," Montour said.

"Nobody feels happy with the results that we have, anytime you don't make the playoffs. I think for our group, there's much more than that. I think we can get into the playoffs and surprise some people, it's just a matter of executing and obviously we did not do that really at all last year."

A four-game losing streak through the New Year dropped the Kraken to 17-22-3, far out of the playoff picture just over midway through the campaign. Montour's hoping a stronger start this year can keep the team engaged and energized longer - especially with new head coach Lane Lambert leading the team.

"The year is long, it's draining, you get on these losing swings and you're out of the playoff picture pretty early, it's tough to keep that motor going," Montour said. 

"The faces we have, the personnel we have, the guys we brought in with Mason, Ryan and a few other guys will definitely help us as well but the new coaching staff, I'm excited to work with them," said Montour. 

"Lane and his group seem like they are excited and ready to go and systematically on page with how our team operates. Now it's just a matter of us getting there and surprising guys and surprising each other. That's the main thing, getting the confidence within our group, the young guys and the older guys. I'm excited to see what we can do."