US hockey announces initial 6
players for 2026 Milan Olympics
[June 17, 2025]
By STEPHEN WHYNO
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. named Matthew and Brady
Tkachuk, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Quinn Hughes and Charlie
McAvoy as its first six players for the 2026 Olympics, avoiding
goaltenders on the initial roster unveiled Monday.
Some assortment of Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman
and Thatcher Demko figure to make the team when full rosters are
submitted in early January.
“Our goalies played well for us, great seasons: Connor just got the
Vezina and Hart, which is incredible,” U.S. general manager Bill
Guerin said on a video call with reporters. “It was just kind of the
thing we talked that about before we did it for 4 Nations: do we add
a goalie, do we not add a goalie? I felt it was best we stay
consistent and just let the goalies play it out during the season.”
All 12 teams that qualified — with France replacing Russia because
of the International Olympic Committee's ban on that country for
team sports because of the war in Ukraine — announced the start of
their groups set to take part in Milan. This tournament marks the
return of NHL participation and what should be the first Olympics
for Canada's Connor McDavid and many other top players who have not
yet gotten that opportunity.
“Incredibly honored to represent my country at the biggest sporting
event in the world,” McDavid said after he and the Edmonton Oilers
practiced during the Stanley Cup Final. “You think of the Canadian
players that can be named to that team and to be selected again, it
means a lot.”
McDavid would have been there had the NHL not pulled out of the 2022
Beijing Games because of pandemic-related scheduling issues. Along
with McDavid, Canada picked Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale
Makar, Brayden Point and Sam Reinhart, the latter of whom is also in
the final with the defending champion Florida Panthers.
“When you’re growing up when you’re watching as a kid, it’s Stanley
Cup finals and it’s Team Canada,” Reinhart said. "Those are the two
things that you dream about playing for. To have that opportunity is
pretty exciting.”
Three other Panthers players — Aleksander Barkov for Finland, Nico
Sturm for Germany and Uvis Balinskis for Latvia — are penciled in
for Milan. Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl headlines the list for Germany,
which reached the final in 2018 when the NHL skipped the Olympics.
“There’s not a lot of elite centermen in the league: I think Leon is
in that category, Sasha (Barkov is) in that category,” Sturm said.
“Big left-handed centermen that you can model your game after. He’s
definitely somebody that I look up to a lot and try to learn from.”
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Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid skates during a stoppage in play
during the second period in Game 2 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final
against the Florida Panthers, in Edmonton, on June 6, 2025. (Darryl
Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Obviously much can change over the next eight
months, from injuries to performance, and this process with the IOC
and International Ice Hockey Federation follows what the U.S.,
Canada, Sweden and Finland did in naming six initial players last
summer for the 4 Nations Face-Off that was a massive success in
February.
“I understand it from a marketing perspective to get things up and
running,” Canada GM Doug Armstrong said. “We probably had a wide
berth of players we could have named, but it is what it is. I think
it’s consistent with the 4 Nations and the event before, so we’re OK
doing. As I said to someone: ‘I think the easy part’s behind us,
these six. Now it gets interesting as we fill out that roster.’”
Sweden chose forwards Gabriel Landeskog, Lucas Raymond, William
Nylander and Adrian Kempe and defensemen Victor Hedman and Rasmus
Dahlin. Finland picked Barkov, fellow skaters Mikko Rantanen,
Sebastian Aho, Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell and goaltender Juuse
Saros.
This is Barkov's second Olympics after being in Sochi in 2014. That
was as a young, part-time player.
“That was my dream as a kid to be there, and I got to experience
that for a little bit for two games,” Barkov said. "Now, to be named
again is a huge honor. I’m really, really happy and honored and
thankful for that opportunity.”
Much of the reaction to the roster release on social media had to do
with Russia not taking part. That means all-time leading goal-scorer
Alex Ovechkin, MVP finalist Nikita Kucherov and two time Cup-winning
goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy will not get the chance to go to
Milan.
“It’s disappointing that they’re not in this event, but it’s
certainly nothing that the participants in the event can control,”
Armstrong said. “You have to play the teams that are on your
schedule, and unfortunately this time around the Russians won’t be
there.”
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