Brooklyn Courtnall is getting another shot to show what she can bring to Canada’s women’s national team.
The 23-year-old defender, daughter of former NHLer Russ Courtnall and niece of Geoff Courtnall, has been added to Team Canada’s roster for a pair of friendlies against Denmark in Montreal and Toronto on Oct. 9 and Oct. 12.
For Canada, the timing matters. These matches are the national women’s team’s first in Canada in more than a year, since a meeting with Costa Rica in Toronto on June 27, 2025. They also stand as the final tune-up before the 2026 Concacaf Women’s Championship, the single-elimination event that will decide qualification for the 2027 Women’s World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Courtnall was not part of the original group named for the Denmark matches, so the late call gives her a fresh opportunity to make her case for a World Cup place.
She has spent the past two years playing professionally in the National Women’s Soccer League and previously represented Canada at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. Her senior-team debut came at the invitational SheBelieves Cup, where she appeared in two games against Colombia and Argentina.
Her last name has long been familiar in Canadian hockey circles. Russ Courtnall played 16 NHL seasons after going in the first round to the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring 90 goals in parts of six seasons with Toronto. He later played for the Montreal Canadiens and Dallas Stars, then joined Geoff Courtnall with the Vancouver Canucks briefly in the 1994-95 season.
Geoff returned to the St. Louis Blues after that year, while Russ stayed in Vancouver for two more seasons before finishing his career with the New York Rangers and Los Angeles Kings.
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