Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon will bring their Nova Scotia swagger to the IIHF World Championship in Sweden and Denmark.
Crosby was added to Team Canada’s roster for the upcoming tournament late Sunday. MacKinnon will also play for Canada, agent Pat Brisson told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun. Brisson represents Crosby and MacKinnon.
Crosby and MacKinnon are close friends and neighbors in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They played together for Team Canada at the 2015 World Championship and the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
MacKinnon was named MVP of the 4 Nations, where he and Crosby played on the same line. MacKinnon led the tournament with four goals and Crosby tied for second in scoring with five points.
Neither player came out of that tournament hoping to be available for the World Championship. However, Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for a third consecutive season and MacKinnon’s Colorado Avalanche lost Game 7 of an opening-round series to the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.
Crosby has not played in the World Championship since 2015. MacKinnon last played in 2017.
Crosby, who captained Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics, 2015 World Championship, 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the 4 Nations Face-Off, will fill that role again at the upcoming tournament.
Canada begins preliminary-round play against Slovenia on Saturday at Avicii Arena in Stockholm at 6:20 a.m. ET.
Sidney Crosby had 91 points in 80 games for the Penguins in his 20th NHL season. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Why Crosby is joining Team Canada
Typically, 37-year-old icons don’t bother playing in the IIHF World Championship. For Crosby, however, it actually does make plenty of sense.
Crosby longs to play in meaningful hockey games and for the third consecutive season, his Penguins didn’t qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was pretty clear that playing in the 4 Nations Face-Off was inspiring for Crosby, who played his best hockey of the season — and maybe his best hockey in the past three or four years — following Canada’s victory in that tournament.
But the biggest reason of all for Crosby to participate in this tournament, other than patriotism, is the fact that it will keep him busy. Crosby was asked numerous times during his red-hot stretch late in the regular season about the secret to his performance, and if he was feeling the impact of fatigue. Time and time again, Crosby explained that at his age, pausing his routine is the worst thing he can do.
“Maybe I’ll get tired at some point,” Crosby said. “But when I go for a while without skating, I notice it. I don’t feel as good after long breaks, which is different from when I was younger.”
Thus this tournament gives him the opportunity to play hockey deep into May.
Otherwise, Crosby was looking at going nearly six months without playing a meaningful hockey game. My sense is that he wasn’t interested in going that long without playing. This tournament gives him the opportunity to not only pad his already-incomparable international resume but also stay a little sharper over the summer so he’s in strong form when his 21st NHL season begins in October.
Canada is scheduled to play seven games during an 11-day span before the medal round of the tournament begins, so Crosby, who figures to be team’s captain, should be able to stay plenty busy.
Logistically speaking, Crosby tends to vacation in Europe for a few weeks following every NHL season. He prefers it to be in the summer, of course, but he was ready earlier than he would have liked to head across the pond anyway.
All in all, while this isn’t a tournament that revs many engines in North America, the fact is that Crosby is playing at a remarkably high level and getting to see him play remains a big deal.
Nathan MacKinnon had seven goals in seven games for the Avalanche in the first round. (Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)
Why MacKinnon is joining Team Canada
On Saturday night in Dallas, MacKinnon sat at his locker stall in disbelief, barely able to articulate the disappointment and pain he felt following the Avalanche’s third-period collapse in a Game 7 loss to the Stars.
“I’m just in shock, to be honest with you,” he said quietly.
Clearly, it’s not the feeling he wants to end the 2024-25 hockey season with, so he’s off to worlds for the first time since he was 19 years old. The chance to go out on a higher note — and to play alongside his buddy Crosby — was too appealing.
MacKinnon is one of the great players of his generation, but his international resume is lacking, thanks to the NHL’s lack of participation in the 2018 and 2022 Olympics. He didn’t make the 2014 team in Sochi, but he did post a goal and three assists in eight games at the Worlds that spring as an 18-year-old. The following year, he had four goals and five assists in 10 games for Canada, while Crosby had four goals and seven assists in nine games.
MacKinnon returned to the World Championship in 2017, with six goals and 15 points in 10 games, but that’s the last time he wore a Team Canada sweater until the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this season, when he had four goals in four games. MacKinnon played for Team North America — the 23-and-under “young guns” team — at the 2016 World Cup, posting two goals and an assist in three games.
MacKinnon, of course, has reached a different plane of hockey existence since then. Over the last four years, only Connor McDavid has more points than MacKinnon’s 455 (in just 297 regular-season games, a 1.53 points-per-game average).
Stars of his and Crosby’s caliber don’t often make the trip to worlds — they’re either making deep playoff runs or focusing on their offseason — so their addition makes Canada a clear favorite in Stockholm.
(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)