CALGARY — Hannah Miller's international hockey status continues in limbo as Hockey Canada awaits an International Ice Hockey Federation decision.
Miller was among 30 players invited to an Olympic orientation camp that concluded Thursday, and will be followed by a two-week training camp in Calgary.
"We're looking forward to having her officially cleared and hopeful that's going to happen," said Canadian women's hockey team general manager Gina Kingsbury.
Miller was also named to Canada's world championship roster this year, but was deemed ineligible to play under IIHF rules.
What barred the 29-year-old from North Vancouver, B.C., from playing for Canada in Ceske Budejovice, Czechia isn't the same hurdle in front of her for the Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina, Italy.
Miller played for host China in the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing.
She represented Canada in back-to-back women's world under-18 championships in 2013 and 2014, so Hockey Canada seeks Miller's reinstatement to Canada.
The IIHF states a player can switch national eligibility just once in a career.
"We don't see it as a transfer. We see it as a reinstatement into her home country," said Kingsbury.
"She can't play for China, she doesn't have her Chinese passport so we're not actually taking or stealing her from China. She's just coming back to Canada."
The IIHF rule that kept Miller out of this year's world championship in April was she was under contract to a club in another country less than two years earlier.
Her 2022-23 season with China's KRS Shenzhen was over by March, but her contract didn't expire until May 31, 2023.
That's no longer an issue, but her international status remains up in the air.
"We feel that we have a pretty strong case for her to be eligible to pay for Canada," Kingsbury said.
The five-foot-nine, 179-pound Miller was among the women who played their way up Canada's depth chart in the first two years of the Professional Women's Hockey League.
Miller totalled 17 goals and 21 assists in 54 games over two seasons with the Toronto Sceptres before signing a three-year contract this summer with Vancouver's yet-unnamed expansion team.
Winnipeg defenceman Kati Tabin, who plays for the PWHL's Montreal Victoire, and Ottawa goalie Kayle Osborne of the New York Sirens were national team newcomers invited to camp.
Kingsbury is GM of the Sceptres and Canada's head coach Troy Ryan holds the same job with Toronto. His Canadian assistants Kori Cheverie and Caroline Ouellette are head coach and assistant respectively with the Montreal Victoire.
The coaches will have front-row seats on PWHL player performance this season, so Olympic job opportunity extends beyond the 30 invited to Calgary, Kingsbury said.
"We get to see them with a great calibre of hockey, competing against each other on a night-by-night basis, and with those opportunities, athletes are going to make the most of it," Ryan said.
"You have a player like Kati Tabin here who has been with our program previously but now gets an opportunity because of her play in the PWHL Hopefully she makes the most of it."
Women's rosters remain 23 players at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy, even though rosters were expanded to 25 at this year's world championship.
Canada opens defence of its gold medal Feb. 5 against Finland.
Hockey Canada will hold another two-week training camp for the women in Toronto in October, followed by another camp in Montreal before a four-game Rivalry Series against the United States.
Canada and archrival U.S. clash Nov. 6 in Cleveland and Nov. 8 in Buffalo before the series flips to Edmonton in December. Game dates have yet to be announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2025.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
