France has not officially qualified for the men’s ice hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics but, based on having the best second-place finish within its group at the recent Olympic qualifiers, the French are next in line in the highly likely event that a Russian team does not participate.
Therefore, here is the projected 25-man roster that France will bring to Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in February 2026.
Like Denmark, France’s Olympic qualifying roster was pretty much the best that the country could have assembled, so there should be very few, if any changes. If healthy, Alexandre Texier, Stéphane Da Costa, Tim Bozon, Yohann Auvitu and Washington Capitals prospects Pierrick Dubé and goaltender Antoine Keller will all be there.
Some of the team’s most recognizable names are getting up there in years, however. Most, such as Sacha Treille, younger brother of head coach Yorick, will probably stay on with the national team at least until the Olympics if France is there. The biggest question mark, however, involves the team’s captain, Pierre-Édouard Bellemare.
Bellemare played 40 games with the Seattle Kraken last season and then for France at the IIHF World Championship in Ostrava in May and the final Olympic qualifying round in Riga in late August. As of this writing, however, he is 39 years old and not committed to playing for any team in the 2024-25 season. Will he play again? In February 2026, he will be weeks shy of his 41st birthday. It’s certainly possible that if the French team is there, Bellemare will be too, but for now, I’m going to err on the side of not.
If that’s the case, who will replace him? I’m not a big expert on French hockey players beyond a handful of their top players, but, there look like two prime candidates.
One is 28-year-old Kevin Bozon, brother of Tim and son of French hockey legend Philippe Bozon. He’s played for France in the last two World Championships and plays for HC Ajoie in Switzerland’s top National League but produces very little offense, racking up 16 points in the past two seasons combined. He was also diagnosed last month with Crohn's disease, which has sidelined him, hopefully only for the time being. The other is 21-year-old Tomas Simonsen, who was the second-highest French scorer in the Ligue Magnus last season but is somewhat undersized at 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds.
Given his age, upward trajectory and the fact that this tournament will be played on wider international rinks, Simonsen gets the nod.
NOTE: Kevin Bozon’s Crohn’s disease diagnosis was brought to the author’s attention after the article's original publication.
Goaltenders: Julian Junca, Antoine Keller, Quentin Papillon.
Defensemen: Yohann Auvitu, Enzo Cantagallo, Florian Chakiachvili, Pierre Crinon, Hugo Gallet, Enzo Guebey, Vincent Llorca, Thomas Thiry.
Forwards: Justin Addamo, Charles Bertrand, Louis Boudon, Tim Bozon, Valentin Claireaux, Stéphane Da Costa, Floran Douay, Pierrick Dubé, Jordann Perret, Anthony Rech, Nicolas Ritz, Tomas Simonsen, Alexandre Texier, Sacha Treille (C).
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