On Aug. 1, Hockey Canada unveiled the 42 NHL players invited to participate in the Olympic orientation in Calgary later this month. The initial six were announced back in June, and now Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, and Sidney Crosby will potentially be joined by Jordan Binnington, Mitch Marner, Mark Scheifele, and John Tavares, among others. Even though the official team roster won’t be announced for some time, Canada still looks to enter the tournament as a gold medal favourite.
However, one name was suspiciously absent from the list – Ottawa Senators defenceman Thomas Chabot. Hockey Canada can’t include everyone, and some players just won’t make the cut, but not inviting Chabot raises some significant questions. He has been one of the most productive defenders in the NHL since 2018-19 and proven he can be an excellent international competitor, so why wasn’t he even offered the chance to try out?
It’s impossible to know the process Hockey Canada underwent to select their initial list of 42 players, but Chabot’s exclusion points to one thing – Hockey Canada is trying to build a team of role players, just like they did at the 2025 World Juniors, and, as we saw at that tournament, that strategy doesn’t work.
Chabot’s Career Deserves an Invite
While Chabot has never been one of the NHL’s top defencemen, he’s been a reliable offensive threat on Ottawa’s blue line. Since his debut in 2016-17, he’s averaged over 11 goals and 30 points a season, which has put him in some distinguished company. Since 2018-19, only eight Canadian defencemen have put up more points than him, and of those, three have already been named to Canada’s preliminary roster.
The 2018-19 season was a pivotal moment in Chabot’s career, as he recorded a career-high 14 goals and 55 points. That’s the 15th-highest total a Canadian defender has recorded since that season. But that season also saw him capture his first World Championship medal. Playing on the second pair alongside Troy Stecher, his seven points tied for the third-highest total among defencemen at the tournament, but the Canadians fell just short to Finland in the final. It wasn’t his first World Championship—he first competed for Canada in 2018 as a 21-year-old—nor would it be his last, as he returned as team captain in 2022, but it was his best as a professional.
Chabot has also gained a…
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