Just under a year ago, the National Hockey League (NHL) took the sports world by storm with its first rendition of the 4 Nations Face-Off. This week, they look to do it again…but with Olympic history on the line.
It’s been 12 years since NHL players last competed for their respective countries in the Olympics. As the NHL proved last year, international best-on-best hockey brings out levels of passion never seen before.
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the NHL, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have worked together since the start of the decade to make this happen. NHL players were supposed to play in the 2022 Beijing games, but backed out due to COVID-19 concerns.
With the rosters set for Milano-Cortina, I’ve broken down every men’s hockey team and their chances of Olympic glory.
Medal contenders:
United States
2026 will be a true ‘gold or bust’ year for the Americans. The Americans enter the Olympics under pressure after falling to Canada in their most recent best-on-best matchup. With the shift of global hockey slowly moving away from Canada’s grasp, this year’s Olympics is the perfect opportunity for the U.S. to prove it is a serious hockey nation.
We’ve never seen a U.S. roster so deep, with stars from top to bottom. They boast one of the best goaltending tandems in the world, with former Vezina trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck and Jake Oettinger, the starting goalie for the Dallas Stars.
The only thing standing in the way of a gold medal is themselves. Historically, the United States hockey team has not performed well at the Olympics. Their last gold medal win came famously in 1980, 46 years ago. But with recent IIHF World Junior success and a IIHF Men’s World Championship, the U.S. hopes its recent momentum can send it to the top.
Top forwards: Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews (Captain), Matt Boldy
Top defensemen: Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski
Starting goalie: Connor Hellebuyck
Canada
The Canadians are riding the momentum of the huge win at the 4 Nations Face-Off – the first best-on-best international tournament since the 2014 Olympics. In fact, Canada has won gold at the last two Olympics that featured NHL players (2010, 2014).
The 2026 rendition of the roster includes Team Canada veterans such as Sidney Crosby, Drew Doughty, and Brad Marchand. Combined, the three have represented Canada at the international level 22 times.
Similar to the 4 Nations’ Face-Off, the one thing slowing Canada down is the lack of a strong defensive and goaltending core. Cale Makar is one of the best defensemen in the NHL, but his supporting cast leaves a lot to be desired. The goaltending group doesn’t seem to have a clear number one goalie yet, so Canada will need to use the round robin games to establish the hierarchy.
Top forwards: Connor McDavid, Nathan McKinnon, Sidney Crosby (Captain)
Top defensemen: Cale Makar, Josh Morrissey
Starting goalie(s): Jordan Binnington/Darcy Kuemper/Logan Thompson
Sweden
Expect Sweden to make a big splash at this year’s tournament. Despite a disappointing finish at the 4 Nations Face-Off, there are big expectations for 2026.
Sweden easily presents the strongest roster out of all the European teams. The Swedes re-tooled after last year, replacing six players who were on the 4 Nations Face-Off team. They even brought two players with previous Olympic experience: Rasmus Dahlin, who played in 2018, and Pontus Holmberg, who played in 2022, according to Olympic records.
There’s no reason Sweden shouldn’t take the top spot in group B after the round robin. They’ll get another shot at their archrival Finland, which beat them in overtime just over a year ago at the 4 Nations. Sweden is a clear favorite to win at least a bronze medal.
Top Forwards: Lucas Reymond, Leo Carlsson, William Nylander
Top defenseman: Rasmus Dahlin, Victor Hedman
Starting goalie: Filip Gustavsson
Underdogs:
Finland
In the 2022 Olympic Games, Finland finally secured their first gold medal after six silver and bronze medal finishes. This year, they enter with the fourth-best odds to win gold, according to Fanduel.
Finland returns one player from the 2022 squad, defenseman Mikko Lehtonen. Lehtonen currently plays in Switzerland for the ZSC Lions and has not appeared in an NHL game since early 2021. However, the rest of the lineup is made up of active NHL players. They return a solid top-six forward group and a surprisingly good defensive core. Finland just lacks the star power needed to knock off the top dogs.
Top forwards: Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Mikael Granlund (Captain)
Top defensemen: Esa Lindell, Miro Heiskanen
Starting goalie: Juuse Saros
Czechia
Czechia has performed well recently on the international stage, even winning a IIHF Men’s World Championship, and having good runs throughout the last few World Juniors. Fans are excited to see what they have to offer. It’s been quite some time since they’ve been able to build their best roster.
With a roster mixed between NHL players and European league players, the Czechs just don’t have enough to keep up with the best of the best. The NHL full rosters have an advantage as they are all used to playing against the best in the world. Don’t be fooled, the Czechia roster has talent–but it would take a lot from them to make a deep run in the tournament.
Top forwards: David Pastrnak, Tomas Hertl, Martin Necas
Top defenseman: Filip Hronek, Radko Gudas
Starting goalie: Lukas Dostal
Germany
Although not a very historically rich country in terms of hockey, Germany has the opportunity to surprise a lot of people. Germany has yet to win Olympic gold or an IIHF event, according to Olympic and IIHF records.
Similar to the United States, they’ve never had a roster with so much talent. Look out for strong offense, with their ‘it-factor’ player being Leon Draisaitl. Draisaitl led the entire NHL in goal scoring last season with 52 goals.
But similar to the Czechs, the German roster just doesn’t have what it takes to hang with the elites.
Top forwards: Leon Draisaitl, JJ Peterka, Lukas Reichel
Top defensemen: Moritz Seider, Leon Gawanke
Starting goalie: Phillip Grubauer
Long shots:
Slovakia
A once-talented hockey country has fallen on hard times. Slim success at IIHF tournaments, a limited NHL talent pool, and a perceived lack of cohesion describe the current state of the Slovakian hockey team.
Notable players: Juraj Slafkovsky, Simon Nemec, Martin Fehervary
Switzerland
Switzerland rosters a surprising 10 NHL players– a two-player increase from the 2014 Olympic Games, according to NHL and Olympic data. Not too bad for a country that most people don’t associate with hockey.
Notable players: Nico Hischier, Roman Josi, Kevin Fiala
Latvia
Although Latvia has struggled on both the Olympic and IIHF stage, its 2014 Olympic run leaves some hope in a potential Cinderella run. Latvia made the quarterfinals for the first time in 2014 and narrowly lost to the eventual champion, Canada, 2-1, according to Olympic records.
Notable players: Arturs Silovs, Elvis Merzlikins, Teddy Blueger
Here because we have to be:
France
The French have never made it past the round robin in Olympic hockey. Montreal Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier is the only NHL player on the roster.
Denmark
The Danish hockey team is appearing in its second-ever Olympic Games. They made history in 2022 by making the quarterfinals in their first-ever appearance.
Italy
The host country opted not to recruit NHL players based on heritage, but rather to have natural-born Italians and Italian hockey league players make up their team, according to Chris Johnston of The Athletic. By doing that, they missed out on young talent like Adam Fantilli and Cole Perfetti.
Roster and historical information drawn from official NHL, IOC, and IIHF records.
