Canadian men’s team announced for VNL week one


Canada’s men’s coach, Ben Josephson, has announced the players who will represent Canada in Ottawa as the 2022 Volleyball Nations League kicks off for the men on June 7 at the Arena at TD Place.

"The group of men we’ve chosen to represent Canada at the Ottawa leg of the VNL is a great blend of experience, physicality, and skill,” said Josephson, who is in his first year as head coach of Team Canada.

"The selection of this roster was incredibly hard due to the depth of talent we have in Canada right now. It is exciting that we have so many athletes who are ready and capable of 'repping the leaf' on the VNL stage. We cannot wait to see how this group’s preparation these past weeks will translate into performance in Ottawa in front of our amazing Canadian volleyball fans as we kick off this new era of Canadian men’s volleyball."

The roster includes five Olympians from the Tokyo Games (Blankenau, Maar, Sclater, Hoag and Van Berkel), and a mix of up-and-coming talent and familiar faces.

The men’s teams playing in Ottawa (June 7 to 12) at the Arena at TD Place include Canada, Poland, France (Olympic gold medalists), Serbia, Argentina, Italy, Germany and Bulgaria. This will be the first major event for Canada since the Olympics in Tokyo. Each team plays four of the six days. Info on tickets can be found here: https://www.tdplace.ca/event/volleyball-nations-league/

Canada Roster (Week 1)

Jay Blankenau

Brett Walsh

Ryan Sclater

Brodie Hofer

Stephen Maar

Nicholas Hoag

Ryley Barnes

Mathias Elser

Justin Lui

Lucas Van Berke

Pearce Eshenko

Jackson Howe

Marc Wilson

Jesse Elser

Head coach: Ben Josephson