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.