Captain Canada is back donning the Maple Leaf.
Hockey Canada announced Tuesday that Sidney Crosby has been added to the Team Canada roster for the IIHF ice hockey world championship, taking place from May 15 to 31 in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland.
Crosby was not part of the team’s initial 23-man roster, as his Pittsburgh Penguins were just coming off a defeat at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In his place, second-year NHLer Macklin Celebrini was named team captain and backed up that honour with a four-point performance in Canada’s 6-1 win over France in pre-tournament action on Sunday.
Crosby has captained Canada in all international competitions he’s taken part in since first donning the ‘C’ for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, including the 2015 world championship, the 2016 world cup of hockey, the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, and most recently, the 2026 Winter Olympics.
However, he was unable to suit up for Canada’s semifinal game against Finland and the gold-medal game against the United States after suffering an injury in the quarterfinals against Czechia.
Over his 53 games played with the Canadian senior men’s team, the Cole Harbour, N.S., native has 27 goals and 43 assists, and has led Canada to six medals on the world stage.
In a corresponding move, Mathew Barzal will miss the world championship due to a minor pre-existing injury, Hockey Canada announced.
Along with Crosby, forwards Dawson Mercer of the New Jersey Devils and Porter Martone of the Philadelphia Flyers were also named to the roster on Tuesday, growing the team to 25 players.
Here is the full 25-player roster following Tuesday’s changes:
Forwards
Sidney Crosby
Porter Martone
Dawson Mercer
Connor Brown
Robert Thomas
Dylan Cozens
Gabriel Vilardi
Mark Scheifele
Emmitt Finnie
Macklin Celebrini
Dylan Holloway
Ryan O’Reilly
John Tavares
Fraser Minten
Defencemen
Dylan DeMelo
Denton Mateychuk
Sam Dickinson
Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse
Zach Whitecloud
Parker Wotherspoon
Morgan Rielly
Goaltenders
Cam Talbot
Jacko Ivankovic
Jet Greaves