Six call-ups, one bigger statement: The NSL is becoming part of the Canada national team story
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Six players from the Northern Super League (NSL) have been named to Casey Stoney’s 24-player Canada squad for October’s two-match series against Denmark. It is a record number for the league.
That alone is worth celebrating but it also raises a bigger question: What does it actually take to get noticed by Canada now?
The answer is becoming more complicated.
AFC Toronto has three players in the squad — Sabrina D’Angelo, Shelina Zadorsky and 18-year-old Kaylee Hunter.
Ottawa Rapid FC has two in Delaney Baie Pridham and goalkeeper Melissa Dagenais. Montréal Roses FC midfielder Marie-Yasmine Alidou completes the group.
They all represent very different stages of a footballing career.
D’Angelo and Zadorsky are established internationals who returned to Canada this summer. Hunter is still breaking into senior football. Alidou has returned to the national team picture through the Montreal and the NSL. Pridham is coming back from injury. Dagenais has been given an opportunity to compete for a place among Canada’s goalkeepers.
And then you have Jessica De Filippo.
The Vancouver Rise forward is the league’s leading scorer. The official NSL statistics have her on 12 goals and four assists in 21 appearances, with 19 starts and 1,669 minutes played. She also has 50 shots and 18 on target.
However, she was not selected for Canada. That is where this story gets interesting.
A record number of NSL call-ups to Canada
Canada’s record number of NSL call-ups is not just a celebration of who made the squad but also shines a light on who did not.
Six is a milestone. It is not the finish line.
Stoney herself has made the league’s development role pretty clear.
After the squad announcement, she pointed to the players who have chosen to play in the NSL and said they are getting regular minutes while also helping grow the domestic league.
The NSL was not created to be a waiting room for players hoping to leave Canada. It was supposed to become part of the pathway itself.
Stoney acknowledged there is still work to do, particularly when it comes to getting enough young players into the league and developing them through the pathway. Six players in one Canada camp shows that the connection is starting to become real.
The interesting part is that some of those players are not simply using the NSL as a comeback story. Hunter, for example, is becoming one of the league’s most intriguing young players.
The 18-year-old has already made two senior appearances for Canada. Last week, she scored a hat-trick against France at the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup, helping Canada advance to the quarterfinals.
Now, she is back with the senior team.
Her 2026 NSL numbers back up the attention. Hunter has nine goals and three assists in 18 league appearances, starting every one. She has played 1,563 minutes.
That is the pathway working in real time.
A teenager plays professional football at home, gets consistent minutes and most importantly, performs. She goes away with the youth national team and scores three times against France. Then she comes back into the senior national-team environment.
That is the kind of progression the NSL needs to produce more often.
Jessica De Filippo’s omission from Canada’s squad
There is another reason De Filippo’s omission stands out.
Jordyn Huitema is unavailable for the Denmark series through injury. Canada has lost a forward who can occupy defenders physically, attack crosses and give the team a presence inside the box.
De Filippo is not a direct physical replica of Huitema. Her game has its own identity. That does not mean she could not have offered Canada something useful.
At 176 centimetres, De Filippo has enough size to compete in the air and has shown a willingness to attack crosses rather than simply waiting for the ball at her feet. Against Montréal last weekend, she rose to meet a cross inside the opening 90 seconds. Later, she nearly scored another header from a corner. She eventually found the net from close range for her 12th goal of the season.
There is also evidence that she can contribute to the work without the ball.
Vancouver have built parts of their game around aggressive pressing and quick transitions. Their match reports have repeatedly highlighted the Rise winning possession high up the pitch and using that pressure to create chances. De Filippo has been the attacking focal point in that environment.
That matters for Canada.
Replacing Huitema does not necessarily mean finding another Huitema. It means finding a forward who can give the team a different way to attack.
De Filippo can press. She can run beyond defenders. Attack crosses. Perhaps most importantly, she is already producing at a remarkable rate.
With 12 goals and four assists in 21 NSL appearances. 50 shots and 18 on target, she is the league’s outright leading scorer.
She has also shown that she can score different kinds of goals. A late header. A poacher’s finish. Run into the box. In the final minutes when Vancouver need something to happen.
That variety is exactly why her omission is worth discussing.
Canada does not have to select De Filippo simply because Huitema is injured. However, with Huitema unavailable, there is a natural opening to test a forward who is in the middle of the best scoring season of her professional career.
Instead, Canada chose to look elsewhere. That is a decision Stoney is entitled to make.
If this NSL pathway is supposed to reward players who consistently perform, De Filippo’s numbers make the question difficult to avoid: when does domestic production become enough to earn the opportunity?
There is another way to look at De Filippo staying home. For Vancouver, it could actually be a small competitive advantage.
The Rise have already seen how much an opponent can change when a key attacker is missing.
Ottawa spent time without DB Pridham during her injury absence, and Vancouver took full advantage. In their 4-0 win over Rapid on September 13, De Filippo scored the second goal as Vancouver pulled away with three goals in seven minutes.
Ottawa were without Pridham that day, and the gap in attacking threat was noticeable.
Now, Vancouver get to keep their own leading scorer while other NSL clubs lose players to Canada. De Filippo remaining in Vancouver means the Rise keep one of their biggest attacking weapons during a crucial stretch of the season and after seeing what Pridham’s absence meant for Ottawa, they know exactly how valuable that can be.
The goalkeeper situation tells another story
Then there is Melissa Dagenais.
Canada has brought four goalkeepers into camp: Kailen Sheridan, Sabrina D’Angelo, Lysianne Proulx and Melissa Dagenais.
Four goalkeepers for two matches might look unusual from the outside.
Stoney explained the thinking. Canada has a new goalkeeping coach and the October camp gives the staff a chance to work with all four players in person before narrowing the group ahead of November.
That means Dagenais is not simply there to fill a fourth spot but rather, part of an evaluation process.
It is also a reminder that national team selection is not always about picking the obvious first choice player for the next game. Sometimes it is about seeing who can compete for the future.
That is particularly relevant for the NSL. The league does not have to produce 11 starters for Canada overnight. It has to create enough opportunities for players to become impossible to ignore.
The same logic applies to Pridham
Pridham’s selection adds another layer. She has only recently returned from injury, yet she remains in the squad.
That does not necessarily contradict Stoney’s emphasis on players who are playing consistently. Casey Stoney also said some players were returning from injury but had shown strong form before being sidelined.
Still, it creates an interesting contrast: One NSL player can return from injury and earn a call-up. Another can stay healthy, play almost every week and lead the league in scoring and still miss out.
It shows just how many factors now sit behind a Canada selection.
Form, minutes, position, competition… all of which De Filippo has consistently shown. At this point, it feels like it might just be timing. All in due time.
Sometimes the player who is performing best in one environment is not the player selected for another.
Holly Ward adds another uncomfortable question
The same conversation extends beyond the NSL.
Seattle Reign forward Holly Ward is also absent from the squad. Her limited club minutes this season provide an obvious piece of context, particularly when Stoney has stressed the importance of players getting consistent game time.
That raises a question for Canadian forwards everywhere.
Does playing regularly in the NSL give a player a clearer route into team Canada than sitting behind established competition in Europe or the NWSL? There is no simple answer yet.
The league is becoming part of the conversation
That might be the biggest change. When the NSL launched, every Canadian player who moved into the league came with a question attached.
Could this level actually prepare players for the national team? Can established internationals still develop here? Are young players able to get enough meaningful minutes?
The October roster provides the first real answer. Not a complete one but still meaningful.
Six players from three NSL clubs are going to camp with Canada.
Hunter is 18. D’Angelo is an established international. Zadorsky brings years of experience. Alidou has returned to the national-team picture. Dagenais is competing for a goalkeeper spot. Pridham has returned from injury and earned her place.
That is a remarkably broad range of stories for a league still in its second season.
The Denmark matches come at an important time. Canada will play at Stade Saputo on October 9th and BMO Field on October 12th.
Those games are the final international window before the November Concacaf W Championship, where qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympics will be at stake.
These are not just feel-good homecoming matches but part of the next stage of Canada’s competitive cycle.
It makes the NSL connection even more significant because if Canada want a sustainable national team, it needs a sustainable pathway behind it.
The six players selected are proof that that pathway is beginning to exist.
De Filippo’s omission is proof that the conversation is nowhere near finished.
Six players made the squad this time. The bigger story is whether the next generation sees those six and believes there is a route for them, too.
It also asks the bigger question whether the players currently knocking on the door — including De Filippo — eventually get the chance to walk through it.
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