Skate Canada features Canada's champions, past and present

It's going to be raining reigning national championships at Skate Canada this weekend, the second stop on figure skating's six-event Grand Prix circuit. Canada's best figure skaters are back – with something to prove.

• Patrick Chan's comeback 'the hardest decision'
• Pair of 3rd-place finishes for Canada at Skate America

At this year's event, in Lethbridge, Alta., will the current Canadian champions Nam Nguyen and Gabrielle Daleman stay ahead of former champions Patrick Chan and Kaetlyn Osmond? Will Skate Canada be the predictor of what's to come at Nationals in Halifax in January?

If I had to pick one event to focus on, it would have to be the men's competition. It's complicated. I didn't think I was going to have to make the difficult choice between Nam and Chan, the comeback kid and three-time world champion. Chan acknowledges that Nguyen poses a threat and I see that too.

Then there's the little matter of the 2014 Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu, whose free program made time stand still for me at the recent Autumn Classic International. Although I could watch Chan's exceptional skating all day long, a competition comes down to readiness and at this point, and I think Hanyu is further ahead.

Hello world, Osmond has rebounded after a year off due to injury and wants her title back. Osmond first burst on to the international scene three years ago, as a last-minute replacement at Skate Canada – which she promptly won.  Daleman is a fighter who might need a little more time to develop consistency in competition; in practice, it's all there. 

2015 world and European champion Elizaveta Tuktamysheva is also a contender, but having seen Osmond at Skate Canada's High Performance Camp in early September, I think this title is Osmond's to lose.

What Skate Canada event means

For ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje, and the pairs team of Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, a win in Lethbridge will mean two things: 1) half the points they'll need to secure a berth at the Grand Prix Final in December, and 2) a chance to see how they fare against a solid field of international competitors.

In ice dance, the competition is real as Weaver and Poje face off against long-time rivals Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev, of Russia, who were out last season with injury. They haven't met at an event since the 2014 Sochi Olympics, where the Russians finished fifth while Weaver and Poje were seventh.

Times have changed.

Weaver and Poje now have two world medals under their belts and a reputation for innovative themes and choreography, which gives them the edge for me.

Duhamel and Radford's style is to run their own race. Over the course of the season, there will be lots of other pairs teams chasing them, including the very promising new American duo of Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran.

The key for the reigning world and Canadian champions is to forget about everyone else and improve on their own winning performances every time they show up to compete.