For the first time in more than a decade, Team Canada will be going into a major tournament without Marie-Philip Poulin as the captain.
With Poulin sidelined after off-season knee surgery that could cost her the entire 2026-27 PWHL season, Canada is in unfamiliar territory as they forge ahead without one of the greatest players of all time.
Canada kicks off the 2026 Women’s Worlds on Friday, Nov. 6 against Sweden at 9 a.m. ET on TSN1 and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App.
Canada announced that forward Laura Stacey and defender Renata Fast would share the captaincy during the 2026 Women’s Worlds in Denmark, with forward Kristin O’Neill as a full-time alternate captain. Fast will be the captain when Canada wears their red jerseys and Stacey will take the role when the team is in white.
Fast, who has been with the senior team since 2017, has previously worn the ‘A’ at the Women’s Worlds for Canada and was one of four alternate captains at Milano Cortina 2026 alongside Brianne Jenner, Blayre Turnbull and Jocelyne Larocque.
It has been a big rise for Stacey, who was a healthy scratch during the 2021 Women’s Worlds and is now a co-captain. It’s the same story for O’Neill, who made her senior team debut at the 2021 tournament and played limited minutes and was cut from the 2022 Olympic team. Both have served as assistant captains in the PWHL but this will be their first time as part of the formal leadership group at the senior team level.
Since making her senior team debut at the 2009 Women’s Worlds and being named captain in 2015, Canada hasn’t had many instances of being without Poulin.
The closest was at the 2019 Women’s Worlds, as a knee injury derailed her tournament. Poulin went into the tournament already dealing with the injury and didn’t suit up in the first two round-robin games. She finally gave it a go against Russia but lasted only five minutes before being sidelined for the remainder of the tournament. It was a disastrous one for Canada, who finished with a program-worst bronze medal.
Canada has had moments like the 2021 Women’s Worlds and 2026 Olympics where Poulin missed multiple games in tournament but came back to give the team a significant lift. But this time, there is no Poulin coming in with the expectation of a clutch goal or dragging her team into the fight.
It’s also significant as Canada, now with Danièle Sauvageau as general manager and Kori Cheverie as head coach, chose to go with a youth movement as a new cycle coming of the 2026 Olympics begins.
Jenner, Larocque and Natalie Spooner were left off the roster, while Turnbull isn’t available due to her pregnancy. Other veteran stalwarts like Sarah Nurse and Emerance Maschmeyer are also not on the roster after they were unavailable for camp.
But despite Canada bringing seven players who are making their senior national team debuts, including a pair of 18-year-olds in forwards Rosalie Tremblay and Hayley McDonald, the team isn’t lacking experience.
Fast, Stacey, Erin Ambrose, Emily Clark, Ann-Renée Desbiens and newcomer Rebecca Leslie comprise the group of players who are 30 and older. While Leslie doesn’t have the international experience of the others, her professional hockey resume makes up for it.
After graduating from Boston University in 2018, Leslie turned pro for the 2018-19 season with the Canadian Women’s Hockey League’s Calgary Inferno, winning a title with the team before the league folded at the end of the season.
She spent four years skating with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association (PWHPA) before landing with Toronto in the inaugural PWHL campaign in 2024. She spent one season there before landing with her hometown team in Ottawa, where she has plied her trade the last two years.
Sarah Fillier, Ella Shelton and Emma Maltais were all fresh-faced kids when they made their worlds debuts in 2021, but they’ve blossomed into seasoned veterans who have played in two Olympic Games and five world championships.
There is no doubt when Poulin is ready to return that she will reassume the captaincy. While she is 35, she is expecting to play for several more years and hasn’t ruled out playing in the 2030 Olympics.
For now, Canada is getting a taste of what it’s like not to have their best player and longtime leader as they look for their first gold medal at the worlds since 2024. While Fast and Stacey are more than capable of leading, the bigger hope is that the next generation of players starting their senior team journey show that they have it takes to push Canada into the future.