Team Canada will have one of its biggest leaders on the ice when they play at the IIHF World Championships after Hockey Canada announced that Sidney Crosby would be joining the squad.

It's the first time since 2015 that Crosby will skate for Canada at the annual international tournament, putting an end to a decade-long absence without the superstar center.

Team Canada released its initial 15-man roster on Thursday, though Crosby was not included at that point. There was some speculation that he'd elected not to play, but a few days later, the team announced that he'd be joining the squad for the upcoming tournament in Denmark and Sweden.

Darren Dreger of TSN also reports that there's a "decent chance" Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon, a Nova Scotia native like Crosby, would also join the team for the upcoming tournament, which gets underway on May 9.

Crosby, 37, was part of the Team Canada squad that won the 4-Nations Face Off in February, helping to defeat the United States in the championship game.

During Crosby's last IIHF tournament, he registered 11 points in nine games and helped Canada win gold in a 6–1 victory over Russia in the tournament finale. That, of course, was a decade ago, but the 20-year NHL veteran hasn't lost much of a step since then. In 2024-25 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Crosby scored 33 goals and had 91 points in 80 games.

He joins a Team Canada forwards group that already consists of Macklin Celebrini, Will Cuylle, Adam Fantilli, Tyson Foerster, Barrett Hayton, Bo Horvat, Kent Johnson, Travis Konecny and Ryan O'Reilly.

More on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sidney Crosby to Play for Canada at Men's Worlds for First Time Since 2015.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate