After a standout season within the Skilled Girls’s Hockey League, Toronto Sceptres ahead Hannah Miller will not be suiting up for Group Canada on the world championship in April in any case.
Miller was named to the 25-player roster after placing up among the finest performances within the PWHL this season. The 29-year-old from North Vancouver has posted 24 factors in 26 video games in her second season with the Sceptres, serving to the crew climb from the league basement into playoff place.
However Miller beforehand competed for the Chinese language crew, and was dominated ineligible to play for Canada by the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Hockey Canada mentioned in an announcement on Monday.
“The IIHF stipulates a two-year timeline from when Miller final performed abroad to ensure that her to be eligible to play for Canada,” the assertion says.
Group Canada normal supervisor Gina Kingsbury mentioned the choice was disappointing.
“We remained optimistic and believed she had met all of the circumstances outlined by the IIHF to signify her nation, together with the two-year timeline across the switch portal,” Kingsbury mentioned. “Hannah has labored onerous this season, earned a spot on our roster and we are going to look ahead to future alternatives for her to put on the Maple Leaf.”
Performed for China at 2022 Olympics
Miller performed for Canada on the Beneath-18 world championships in each 2013 and 2014, incomes back-to-back gold medals.
She signed with the Kunlun Crimson Star (KRS) Vanke Rays in 2018, a Chinese language crew that used to compete within the Canadian Girls’s Hockey League. The Chinese language nationwide crew recruited North Individuals forward of the 2022 Olympics to attempt to bolster its roster forward of a Video games on residence soil.
Miller performed for China on the 2022 Olympics and that yr’s Division B world championship, a tier beneath the highest match. She led China to a championship at that match, and was named prime ahead.
She spent 5 seasons enjoying for the Vanke Rays, which moved over to the ladies’s league in Russia when the CWHL folded in 2019. She additionally spent a season within the Swedish Girls’s Hockey League.
Miller returned to North America final season, after the Sceptres drafted her 74th general within the 2023 PWHL draft.
She will likely be changed on Group Canada by Sceptres teammate Julia Gosling, who received gold with Canada ultimately yr’s world championship in Utica, N.Y.
Gosling has registered 10 factors in 27 video games in her first season within the PWHL. She’s earned a job on the highest energy play within the league, spending time on each Toronto’s first and second power-play models.
Canada opens towards Finland
However the Canadian crew has misplaced a possible top-six centre choice in Miller.
Canada may even be with out backup goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer, who was damage in a sport with the Ottawa Cost earlier this month.
Beginning goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens was placed on the long-term injured reserve within the PWHL on Monday as she additionally battles damage, however Desbiens stays on the Canadian roster.
The world championship runs April 9 to twenty in České Budějovice, Czech Republic. It will be Canada’s final main match earlier than the 2026 Olympics subsequent February.
Canada will open towards Finland on April 10, face Switzerland the next day, the US April 13 and end round-robin play towards the host Czechs on April 14.
The gold-medal sport is scheduled for April 20.
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