Was there any doubt?
On Friday, Hockey Canada announced that center Sidney Crosby will captain Team Canada at the 2025 IIHF Men’s World Championship.
Nathan MacKinnon and Ryan O’Reilly will serve as alternate captains for the team in Sweden this month.
Crosby is playing at the Men’s Worlds for the first time since 2015. While he’s been eligible to participate in the tournament in the past, the longtime Pittsburgh Penguins captain has chosen to recover after the grind of the NHL season. However, with the Penguins missing the playoffs for the third consecutive season, the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native has decided he wanted to play some springtime hockey.
This will be just the third time Crosby has played at the world championship. In 2006, he was an alternate captain as the team won bronze. In 2015, he captained a stacked Canadian team to the gold medal. Starting with the 2014 Winter Olympics, Crosby has worn the ‘C’ for every Canadian team he’s played for, including the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and this year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Including the 2010 Vancouver Games, Crosby hasn’t played on a Canadian squad that hasn’t won gold.
MacKinnon, who was officially added to the roster on Thursday, was on Crosby’s line during the 4 Nations in February, being a key player as the team won it all. This is the fourth time the Colorado Avalanche star has played at the Men’s Worlds, including winning gold with Crosby and Canada 10 years ago.
O’Reilly hasn’t donned the maple leaf since the 2018 world championship. That was the last of a stretch during which the Nashville Predators forward played for Canada at the Men’s Worlds six times in seven years. The Clinton, Ontario native won world championship gold in 2015 and 2017 and the World Cup in 2016.
Canada is set to open its Group A schedule on Saturday in Stockholm, taking on Slovenia.
