The 2026 Manitoba Winter Games powered by Manitoba Hydro will take place in Thompson from March 1 – 7, 2026.
These Games will welcome more than 1,500 athletes, 300 coaches and managers, 100 officials, and upwards of 750 volunteers from throughout Manitoba in March 2026. This will mark the third time Thompson has hosted (1994 and 2018).
For hockey, teams consist of Under-13 (U13) Major age boys (2013 birth year) and Under-13 Minor and Major age girls (2013, 2014 birth years). The Manitoba Winter Games are the first step in Hockey Manitoba’s Program of Excellence Player Pathway which, for some, will ultimately lead to Team Manitoba’s U16 Provincial Teams. This program has been created for our identified top athletes at these age categories who will compete in two separate phases.
There are eight teams which are made up from five Sport Manitoba regions which differ from the ten Hockey Manitoba regional boundaries; South (2), West (2), Winnipeg (2). East (1) and North (1). The Sport Manitoba boundaries can be found here.
Below you will find both the boys and girls roster for the 2026 Manitoba Winter Games.
Please Note: Regions held selection camps based on the Sport Manitoba regional boundaries from December 22-23, 2025. The 2026 Manitoba Winter Games rosters were selected with assistance from regional coaching staffs and selected by the Hockey Manitoba Evaluator. The eight boys teams will compete from March 2-4, 2026 at the C.A. Nesbitt Arena in Thompson while the eight girls teams will compete from March 5-7, 2026 at the Gordon Beard Arena in Thompson. The tournament format is round-robin.
Team Competition
· Each team is comprised of 13 skaters and 2 goalies (2 G, 5 D and 8 F) as well as two coaches and a manager (one staff member must be female for the female teams).
· There will be no practices or competitions between the regional evaluation skates and the Manitoba Games Finals.
· Hockey Manitoba will be providing jerseys and socks for the Manitoba Games.
Phase #2 – Gold Standard Tournament
Hockey Manitoba will evaluate all players at the 2026 Manitoba Games.
We will then re-roster each player onto mixed teams for the April 10 – 12, 2026 weekend for our Gold Standard Tournament event in Winnipeg. The event will feature games only.
Invitations to the top players from the Gold Standard Tournament will be sent to automatically include them in the U 16 girls or the U 15 boys Program of Excellence event for the 2026-2027 season. There is no minimum or maximum number of players this will occur with. The Hockey Manitoba High Performance Evaluation Group will determine invitation numbers.
The Manitoba Winter Games last took place in 2018 and follow the Olympic cycle, taking place every two years, alternating between summer and winter events and precede the Canada Games by one year. The program is administered by Sport Manitoba and implemented by the Manitoba Games Council along with the governing Provincial Sport Organizations managing the coordination of their specific sport. To learn more about the 2026 Manitoba Winter Games please visit https://www.mbgames.ca/.
