Canada's prep for 2026 Olympic women's hockey tournament radically revised

How Canada prepares to win another Olympic gold medal in women's hockey is going to be dramatically different.

The six-team Professional Women's Hockey League is now able to provide a lot of what Hockey Canada did, meaning women will not move to Calgary to spend half a year trying out for the 2026 team in Milan-Cortina, Italy.

What was known as "centralization" every four years was designed to push Canada's women to their limits through daily training, practices and games while supported financially by Hockey Canada. Many players said they loved the rigour because it was the pro environment they didn't otherwise have.

Canada's women regularly played local male triple-A teams and also a few games against Junior A men's teams in recent centralizations.

If Canada's team that took silver at the women's world championship Sunday in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, is an indication, it's Olympic edition will be PWHL heavy as 23 of 25 hailed from the league.

WATCH | United States take down Canada in overtime to win women's hockey worlds gold:

United States take down Canada in overtime to win women's hockey worlds gold

Women's world championship rosters expanded to 25 this year, but Olympic rosters will remain at only 23 players in 2026.

"The landscape has shifted in the women's game that doesn't allow us to centralize going into the Olympic Games," said Canadian women's team general manager Gina Kingsbury.

"Once the season starts, we're all in different markets and it's not the same as it has been in the past with centralization and all living in one city for six months before the Olympics."

Centralization was mostly successful as Canada won five of seven Olympic gold medals since women's hockey debuted in Nagano, Japan in