CALGARY — Brad Marchand‘s long-awaited Olympic opportunity is in front of him.

It has been 12 years in the making.

“There’s nothing I want more than to play for the Olympic team,” Marchand, the Florida Panthers forward, said at Hockey Canada’s Orientation Camp last month. “That drive has been there since I went to that (orientation) camp in (2013) and didn’t make that team. Since then it’s been my goal, my driving force every year, every summer. That’s why I was so disappointed in ’18 and then the next one. Everything I have done for the last 12 years has been for this tournament.”

Marchand was not on Canada’s gold-medal winning team in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, but he likely would have already been a two-time Olympian had NHL players participated in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Various circumstances prevented him and others from getting those chances.

Now 37, the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 represent the likely last chance for Marchand to play for Canada on the world’s biggest stage, which has given him perspective to complement his obvious motivation.

“I think you really understand how fragile these opportunities are,” he said. “They’re not a given; even when you think you’re going to go, it doesn’t mean you’re going. The last one we thought we were going for sure. It’s the end of December, a month and a half before we’re leaving, and it gets pulled from us. The one before that, someone’s decision allows us to not go again. You could have an unbelievable NHL career and play for a very long time and not have an opportunity to play in these games.”

Marchand said playing in the Olympics was never a dream for him until he realized it might actually be possible.

“You grow up and you dream of playing in the NHL,” he said. “Like, I never once thought about playing in the Olympics. It was never something I ever could have imagined would happen. You’re the one percent of the one percent, right? … But then to get into a position where you may have that opportunity, played for a long time, and it still hasn’t happened, it would be nothing short of a dream come true.”

Marchand planned to make it reality last summer, when he had surgery three times — on his elbow for a torn tendon, his groin to address a sports hernia and his abdominal area, also for a sports hernia.

At the time, Marchand’s motivation appeared to be twofold; get the operations done in time to be ready for the start of the NHL season, which he was, playing for the Boston Bruins in their opener against the Panthers on Oct. 8, and so he could be fully healed and ready to play for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, which he did, helping to win the championship.

He said he admitted to feeling pressure for the 4 Nations because he was named as one of the first six players to Canada’s roster on June 28, 2024, along with Sidney Crosby, Brayden Point, Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid.

But the Olympic opportunity was the third reason Marchand decided to get his trifecta of surgeries completed.

“I had to pick last summer or this summer to do them,” he said. “I knew I had to do them and it affected my whole season last year. I knew it would. I knew at my age I wouldn’t have the same bounce back rate I had in the past. I knew it would be like that, but I wanted to have the ability to be prepared for this season, so I sacrificed the start of last season to make sure I was ready for this one.

“I feel a lot more comfortable. My anxiety at the start of last season was through the roof. There’s pressure with being named among the top six guys for the 4 Nations team and I knew I was going to be behind the eight ball. I don’t have that this year going in and I feel a lot better.”

The difference is Marchand doesn’t have any guarantees the way he did last year.

Despite helping Canada’s victory at the 4 Nations before playing a big role in the Panthers’ run to their second straight Stanley Cup championship, he was not one of Canada’s initial six players named to the Olympic roster; that honor instead went to Florida teammate Sam Reinhart, who joins Crosby, Makar, MacKinnon, McDavid and Point as Canada’s rostered players.

“It doesn’t change anything,” Marchand said. “There’s a ton of guys that deserve to be named, but there’s only six guys and they’re pretty (darn) good players. You know what I mean. I get it. Disappointed? Yes, because it’s nice to have that security, but it doesn’t change anything.

“I’m still going to compete as hard if I was named to that list as I will now. It’s who I am naturally. But I have no issues. I’ve had to fight for everything I’ve gotten for the last 20 years and it’s not going to change that. If anything, it’ll just propel me to work harder and drive and want to compete more.”