Canada's camp opens without Poulin, and the kids get the audition

Canada's first camp of the Cheverie era opens without Marie-Philip Poulin, and that's the most useful thing that could happen to it.

For a decade, every Canadian roster was built around the captain. This one has to figure out who wins the big faceoff when she isn't there. Better to learn that in Quebec City in October than in a final in Denmark.

Hockey Canada invited 48 players to camp in Quebec City from Oct. 8 to 14, with intrasquad games on Oct. 12 and 14 at Centre Vidéotron. The roster for the Women's Worlds gets cut to 25. The tournament runs Nov. 6 to 16 in Herning and Esbjerg, and Canada opens against Sweden.

Who isn't coming

The list of absences is longer than the list of surprises. Poulin is recovering from knee surgery. Natalie Spooner, Blayre Turnbull, Claire Thompson, Emerance Maschmeyer, Anne Cherkowski and Sarah Paul won't be there either.

That's a captain, an assistant captain, a No. 1-caliber defender and a starting-level goalie out of the room at once. Nobody should pretend Canada is at full strength.

But the core that stays is still loaded: Sarah Fillier, Brianne Jenner, Sarah Nurse, Emma Maltais and Emily Clark up front, Renata Fast, Erin Ambrose and Jocelyne Larocque on the back end, Ann-Renée Desbiens in net. Eighteen of the 23 Olympians from Milan got the call.

The kids are the story

Nine players are at their first national-team camp. Fourteen are still in college. That's where Kori Cheverie gets to put her fingerprints on this team.

Chloe Primerano is the name to watch. She's 19, she's at Minnesota, and she already has world championship experience. She moves the puck like a PWHL defender now, and Canada's back end needs a second puck-mover behind Fast more than it needs another steady veteran.

Up front, Caitlin Kraemer is 20 and plays at Minnesota Duluth. Rosalie Tremblay is 18 and plays at Wisconsin. One of those two makes this team, and it'll be because Canada needs finishing, not because it's being nice to the future.

Why the timing matters

Canada has lost eight straight to the United States, including the 2-1 overtime loss in the Olympic final in February. The last Canadian win in a world final was 2024 in Utica, 6-5 in overtime.

General manager Danièle Sauvageau was blunt about how the program changes after an Olympic cycle.

"Team Canada was almost like 12 months a year on the senior level. Now it will be a program being run mostly from June to November," she said.

Read that as a shorter runway. Cheverie gets one camp, then two games against the Americans, on Oct. 28 in Windsor and Oct. 30 in Plymouth, Mich., before the Worlds. She doesn't have time to build slowly, so the camp has to decide things fast.

My call: Primerano makes the 25 and plays top-four minutes in Denmark, and at least three college players make the final roster. Canada's streak against the Americans won't end with the same group that built it.

The W read: Losing Poulin for the fall hurts. Using the fall to find out who's next is the only way this ends well at the next Olympics.