Founded in 1963 by Father David Bauer, Canada’s National Men’s Team was a full-time program from 1963-68 and 1983-2000, giving Canada a constant presence at major international events.
The final step in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence, the National Junior Team has been a force at the IIHF World Junior Championship since the first year of the POE in 1982.
The second step in Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence, the National Men’s Under-18 Team plays in a summer tournament in Europe and at the IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in April.
Since 1977, Canada’s entry at the IIHF World Championship has been comprised of NHLers whose teams failed to
qualify for postseason play, or were first-round casualties. Twenty-four times Canada has been crowned world
champions, the last one coming in 2007.
Canada was the class of the Olympics in the tournament’s early years, claiming six of the first seven gold medals between 1920 and 1952. The Games opened its doors to NHLers in 1998. Canada ended a 50-year gold medal drought with its 2002 triumph and struck gold on home soil in 2010.
From Paul Henderson’s goal in the dying seconds of the 1972 Summit Series to the championship game victory in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, Canada has often been on top of the best-on-best tournaments that have dotted the history of international hockey.
Beginning with the inaugural world championship in Ottawa in 1990, Canada has never finished worse than
silver, winning the first eight world titles (1990, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004) and claiming
its tenth in 2012.
Since 1990, Canada’s National Women’s Team has been a power on the world stage, winning 10 world titles,
three Olympic gold medals and 12 3 Nations/4 Nations Cups. Its success has helped women’s hockey registration
numbers skyrocket in the last decade.
The second step in Canada’s Program of Excellence, the National Women’s Under-22/Development Team meets twice
a year, for a summer camp and three-game series, typically against the U.S., in August, and again for an
international tournament in Germany in January.
The first step in Canada’s Program of Excellence, the National Women’s Under-18 Team meets twice a year, for
a summer camp and three-game series, typically against the U.S., in August, and again for the IIHF Ice Hockey
U18 Women’s World Championship in January.
Women’s hockey debuted at the Olympic Winter Games in 1998, where the Canadians – four-time defending world
champions – took home the silver medal after falling to the Americans. Canada has not lost an Olympic game
since, claiming gold in 2002, 2006 and 2010.