Canadiens’ Mike Matheson joins Canada for 2025 World Championship

Hockey Canada has announced that Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson has joined the team ahead of the 2025 IIHF World Hockey Championship in Sweden and Denmark.

Matheson becomes the 16th player officially announced to join Team Canada. The program has not officially announced Marc-Andre Fleury as one of the team’s goaltenders, despite him telling the media of the news earlier this week. The team is currently sitting at six defensemen, 10 forwards and one goaltender on their listed roster.

Teams are required to register a minimum of 15 skaters and two goalies prior to the start of the tournament, with up to 20 skaters and two goaltenders allowed to play in any given game.

IIHF teams can have up to 25 players on their official roster – but once a player is registered, they can’t be replaced unless there’s an injury. Canada has used a host of extra, non-rostered players over its two exhibition games, including 2025 NHL Draft prospect Porter Martone and Calgary Flames pick Zayne Parekh.

Matheson is no stranger to Hockey Canada. The 31-year-old represented his nation in 2016 and 2017, registering 13 points in 20 games. He won gold as part of the team in 2016 and silver the following year. Matheson also won gold at the 2011 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, the season-opening tournament for U-18 players.

Matheson is coming off a 31-point season with Montreal – half the production he produced when he set a personal-best of 62 in 2023-24. Matheson had one point in five games prior to Montreal’s first-round playoff exit.

Canada is set to play its first game of the tournament on Saturday at 6:20 AM ET against Slovenia. Canada has won gold at the World Championship a total of 28 times, including most recently in 2023. The team also won the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this year in the NHL’s return to best-on-best competition. Canada beat Austria 5-1 on Sunday before shutting out Hungary 6-0 on Tuesday.