The Bulgarian men's national team will face Canada onJune 16th at 01:00 AM Bulgarian time(GMT+03:00) / 06:00 PM local time, in a group stage match of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), which this year will be played at the TD Place Arena, Ottawa.

The head coach of the Canadian men's national team, Ben Josephson, who replaced Tuomas Sammelvuo in the position, announced the group of 14 athletes who will represent the country in the first week of the competition. This is his first participation as a head coach in the prestigious tournament.

"The group of men we've selected to represent Canada in Ottawa at the VNL is a great combination of experience, physicality, and skill," commented Josephson.
"Selecting this roster was incredibly difficult due to the depth of talent we currently have in Canada. It's exciting to have so many athletes who are ready and capable of wearing the maple leaf on the VNL stage. We can't wait to see how this group's preparation over the past weeks translates into performance in Ottawa in front of our incredible Canadian volleyball fans as we kick off this new era of Canadian men's volleyball."

The squad includesfive Olympiansfrom the Tokyo Games - Jay Blankenau, Stephen Maar, Ryan Sclater, Nicholas Hoag, and Lucas Van Berkel, as well as promising young talents. Noteworthy is the absence of names such as: Arthur Szwarc and Alex Nikolov's teammate at Lube - Eric Loeppky, as well as Moni Nikolov's teammate at Long Beach - Skyler Varga and Alex Grozdanov's teammate at Bogdanka - Fynn McCarthy. Initially, Stephen Maar was not included in the extended list.

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• Jay Blankenau(Jay Blankenau)

• Brett Walsh

• Ryan Sclater(Ryan Sclater)

• Brodie Hofer

• Stephen Maar(Stephen Maar)

• Nicholas Hoag(captain) (Nicholas Hoag)

• Ryley Barnes

• Mathias Elser

• Justin Lui

• Lucas Van Berkel(Lucas Van Berkel)

• Pearce Eshenko

• Jackson Howe

• Marc Wilson

• Jesse Elser

Head coach:Ben Josephson