The 2026 Olympic men's hockey tournament is not, in fact, a two-team tournament. There are several nations involved, I'm told, many with proud sporting traditions. But from the point of view of this American, Team USA has two goals in Milan: win the gold medal, and stop Team Canada from winning it. Here's the roster they'll try to do that with:
Leaks over the past couple of days have prepared us for this, so there are no true surprises in this morning's announcement. That still doesn't make some of GM Bill Guerin's decisions any sounder. The most blatant is the omission of Dallas's Jason Robertson, who leads all Americans in NHL scoring with 48 points (24 goals).
Robertson, like other top forward snubs including Cole Caufield, and to a lesser extent Matthew Knies and Alex DeBrincat, is a little one-dimensional. But the dimension of "scoring goals" is a pretty good one to have. It feels like a failure of imagination not to find a spot for him among 14 forwards, especially with some truly borderline inclusions like Vincent Trocheck, Brock Nelson, and J.T. Miller.
The commonalities here, among the last players in and the last players out, at least make it pretty clear what philosophies guided the decisions. (Except for the omission of defenseman Adam Fox, which is truly inexplicable. He had a rough 4 Nations, but is having another stellar season.)
The snubs are smaller, younger guys, all offensively minded. The players who beat them out are less skilled but also less specialized. They check, they can play on the penalty kill, they can center a line. That flexibility is a nice thing to have, though it may prove unnecessary in a short tournament. More relevant to USA Hockey's thinking is, for lack of a better term because you know the braintrust is using it incessantly, is "grit."
The Miracle on Ice arguably poisoned USA Hockey's philosophy forever. We won once with grinders, and elevated the moment to an integral part of our national identity, so now we must always try to win with grinders. Maybe this made sense even in Guerin's era of international play, when the U.S. still couldn't touch Canada's skill level and had to ice a more rounded team, but it's not the case anymore. American hockey is now right up there with the world's best. We don't need a "checking line" at the Olympics! Checking lines only exist because NHL teams don't have the players to ice four scoring lines, but Team USA does, and chooses not to.
Can they win anyway? Sure. They came within an overtime of beating Canada at 4 Nations. They piled on some more scoring punch to that roster, with the additions of Tage Thompson and Clayton Keller. Quinn Hughes is healthy this time. It's a very good team. It's not as talented as it could be.
Here's Team Canada:
Not a ton of major quibbles here. Sure, you might've preferred Sam Bennett or Seth Jarvis to Anthony Cirelli or Bo Horvat. And it's a little surprising to me that there's not more offensive pop on the blue line, Jakob Chychrun or perhaps Evan Bouchard in place of the more defensively minded Colton Parayko or Travis Sanheim.
Goaltending remains Team Canada's biggest question mark. They were never going to leave off Jordan Binnington, not after his career-defining 4 Nations. But his NHL play clearly lags behind the other two netminders, who are both solid but not necessarily stellar. I have no idea who'll get the start in group play, let alone be the starter by the medal rounds. If Canada even makes it that far! Good luck, hosers!
