The 2026 Olympics are here. What is the format of the men's hockey tournament? What's the point system, overtime and shootout format? What are the gold medal odds? We answer those questions and more.
The 2026 Olympic men's hockey tournament is within reach, and for the first time since 2014, NHL players will be competing in the tournament for a best-on-best competition.
Whether you're new to following Olympic hockey or need a refresher, we answered questions regarding the men's event.
Read on for all the key rules of the competition, gold medal odds, how to watch and some fun facts about the players and teams competing. And as a reminder, The Hockey News' Ryan Kennedy and Michael Traikos will be on the ground in Milan when the men's tournament begins.
What's The Group Stage Format?
For this tournament, there are three groups listed.
Group A: Canada, Switzerland, Czechia and France
Group B: Finland, Sweden, Slovakia and Italy
Group C: USA, Germany, Latvia and Denmark
The tournament begins with the round-robin, where every team faces the teams in its group once.
The seeding of these teams for the elimination round is determined by their group position, total points, goal difference, goals scored, and IIHF world ranking in that order.
The point system differs from the NHL's as well.
Teams will be awarded three points for a victory in regulation, two points for a win in overtime or a shootout, one point for a loss beyond regulation and zero points for losing the game in regulation time.
After each team has played three games in the round-robin phase, the top four teams in the entire competition receive byes into the quarterfinals.
The remaining teams ranked fifth to 12th will play in the qualification playoff round. No. 5 plays No. 12, No. 6 plays No. 11, No. 7 plays No. 10, and No. 8 plays No. 9.
The quarterfinals will be sorted with the following matchups:
- First seed plays the winner between No. 8 and No. 9.
- Second seed plays the winner between No. 7 and No. 10.
- Third seed plays the winner between No. 6 and No. 11.
- Fourth seed plays the winner between No. 5 and No. 12.
What Are The Olympic Men's Hockey Rules?
The Olympics will have an officiating crew shared between IIHF and NHL referees, but they will follow the IIHF rulebook.
That means physicality isn't tolerated the same way it is in the NHL. For example, if two players fight, they will be ejected from the game.
What's The Overtime And Shootout Format?
In the round-robin, if games are tied past regulation, there will be a five-minute "sudden death" overtime and a shootout. The overtime will be played 3-on-3, like in today's NHL.
The shootout is a best-of-five format rather than the best-of-three format the NHL uses. If the shootout is still tied after both teams have had five attempts each, the same or new players can be used in the tiebreaker situation.
If a player has committed a penalty that would carry over past the duration of overtime, they will not be allowed to participate in the shootout and must remain in the penalty box or the dressing room.
As for the knockout rounds, the overtime and shootout procedure will operate the same way, except the overtime period is 10 minutes long.
The gold medal game will not be decided by a shootout; 3-on-3 overtime will continue in 20-minute periods until the game-winning goal is scored.
Roster And Call-Up Rules
For the men's tournament, each team carries a 25-man roster, including 22 skaters and three goaltenders. For each game, teams are allowed to name 20 skaters and two goalies on the official game sheet.
In terms of injuries, players unable to compete at the Games can be replaced up to Feb. 11, the first day of the men's tournament.
However, the rules of the tournament stipulate that a team cannot make any changes during the tournament for any reason, even injuries. Therefore, each team will be stuck with the 25 players they've rostered for the competition.
Nationality And Citizenship Regulations
There have been cases in which players have represented multiple countries in sports.
For instance, some time before the 4 Nations Face-Off roster announcements, there were conversations about Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord being able to represent Canada, USA and Switzerland. He was born in Boston to a Canadian father and a Swiss mother. But while he is a Canadian citizen, he does not own a Canadian passport, which ruled him ineligible to represent Canada at the 4 Nations.
For the Olympics, each player must be under the jurisdiction of an IIHF member national association and must be a citizen of the country they represent.
In other instances, such as Lane Hutson's father saying the American defenseman is also Canadian, there is a process to change national eligibility only once in a player's life.
The players must have spent at least four straight years in the national competitions of their new country. During that time, the player cannot transfer to another country, play hockey within another country or play for their previous country in an IIHF competition.
That player must also have "an international transfer card that shows the transfer to the national association of the new country and which was approved and dated at least four years before the start of the IIHF competition in which the player wishes to participate," the IIHF said.
If a player hasn't played in an IIHF competition before and wants to acquire new eligibility, the period for men's players is 16 straight months instead of four years if they previously played in an IIHF competition. For women, it's at least eight months.
What Are The Olympic Men's Hockey Betting Odds?
Here are the odds for each team to win the gold medal at the 2026 Olympics as of Feb. 9, according to sportsbook BetMGM.
Canada: 2.05/+105
USA: 2.90/+190
Sweden: 8.50/+750
Finland: 12.00/+1100
Czechia: 26.00/+2500
Switzerland: 26.00/+2500
Germany: 67.00/+6600
Slovakia: 81.00/+8000
Latvia: 301.00/+30000
Denmark: 301.00/+30000
France: 751.00/+75000
Italy: 851.00/+85000
Broadcasts: Where To Watch
In the United States, Olympic broadcasts will be on NBC and Peacock.
In Canada, CBC and CBC Gem are expected to broadcast games, while Sportsnet and TSN will divvy them up.
The full schedule and time of puck drop can be found on our 2026 Olympic hockey hub.
Which Men's Hockey Players Have Olympics Experience?
Since this will be the first time NHL players have been allowed to compete in the Olympics since the 2014 Games in Sochi, not many players heading into the 2026 tournament have Olympic experience.
Of the 300 players going to the 2026 Games, just 79 have experience on the Olympic stage.
Czechia's Roman Cervenka is one of them. In fact, this will be his fifth time competing in the men's hockey tournament. He has the most Olympic experience of any player participating in the event.
For Denmark, this will be the first time the country will compete at the Olympics with NHL participation. Interestingly, the Danes have the most players who have featured at the Games before, with 14. All 14 were at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and aren't active NHLers.
In terms of medals, only Canada's Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty have multiple medals among players competing in this year's tournament. They won in 2010 and 2014.
Furthermore, Canada has the most gold medals when NHL players have participated in the Olympics, with three. Finland has the most medals in total, with one silver and three bronze medal finishes.
The NHL has allowed Olympic participation in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2026.
Who Are The Youngest And Oldest Players?
The youngest NHL player to feature in this tournament will be Canadian Macklin Celebrini, who is 19.
In tournaments featuring NHL players, he is set to be the first teenager to represent Canada in ice hockey at the Olympic Games.
The youngest player on a roster is Latvia defenseman Alberts Smits. The 18-year-old appeared in the World Junior Championship just over a month ago and is eligible for the 2026 NHL draft. Smits is a projected first-round pick and is likely to become the highest-selected Latvian in NHL history.
Crosby will be the oldest NHL player going to the Olympics this year. The Pittsburgh Penguins captain is 38 and in the midst of his 21st NHL season. He's also the only player going to these Olympics as a member of the Triple Gold Club, which recognizes players who have won the Stanley Cup, Olympic gold, and World Championship gold.
The oldest overall player to play in the tournament will be France's Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. The 40-year-old veteran center has 700 NHL games of experience.
Details Of The Venue
There will be two rinks in use for the men's tournament.
The Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena will host most of the contests, and the Rho Ice Hockey Arena is the secondary venue. The two venues are just 33 kilometers away from each other.
Santagiulia will host 24 outings, including the gold medal game, and Rho will host the remaining six matches, four of which are round-robin games.
There was plenty of concern regarding the state of the ice and arena as the construction process cut close to the beginning of the Olympics.
The capacity of the Santagiulia Arena was planned to be 14,000, but it ended up being around 11,800.
As far as the ice surface is concerned, it will be slightly different from a standard sheet in the NHL. An NHL ice surface measures 200 feet by 85 feet. The Olympic arenas in Milan are shorter in length at 196.85 feet, and a little wider at 85.3 feet.
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