In just a handful of months, the 2026 Olympic Winter Games will be upon us. So what better time than now to talk about what our projected Men’s Olympic hockey rosters will look like?
We’ve been doing that all week, starting Tuesday with roster projections for Team Canada, then moving to Team USA on Wednesday, followed by Team Sweden on Thursday, and on Friday, we projected the roster of Team Finland. Today, we’re wrapping things up with a look at Team Czechia.
Czechia will come into the Olympic tournament as a clear underdog. But that’s probably the way they want it, as it will mean Czechia is playing with considerably less pressure than the Canadian and American teams.
With that said, here’s The Hockey News’ projected 25-man Czechia roster. Injuries and/or sub-par play in the near future could affect real-life roster decisions, but these are our picks to play for Team Czechia:
Team Czechia Projected Roster
Forwards: Roman Cervenka (C), Tomas Hertl (C), Filip Chytil (C), Jiri Kulich (C), Ondrej Palat (LW), Dominik Kubalik (LW), Pavel Zacha (LW) David Kampf (LW), David Pastrnak (RW), Martin Necas (RW), David Tomasek (RW), Lukas Sedlak (RW)
Extras: Jakub Flek (LW), Ondrej Beranek (LW)
The Breakdown: Team Czechia’s biggest strength is its forward group, which has speed and finesse, things that are rewarded in the international game. And having legitimate stars, including Boston Bruins right winger David Pastrnak and Colorado Avalanche forward Martin Necas, makes Czechia a threat to do serious damage at the upcoming Games.
Czechia does have its share of non-NHL players who are still valuable – in this case, players like greybeard center Roman Cervenka and veteran forward David Tomasek – so it’s not like Czechia is asking Pastrnak and Necas to do all the heavy lifting.
But it will be intriguing to see how Czechia’s players come together when not all of them are highly familiar with each other as teammates. But this country won the IIHF World Championship in 2024, and many of the members of that team are on our projected team. So there’s a winning pedigree going on with Czechia, and they shouldn’t be counted out from winning a medal, even if they are in tough to win gold.
Defensemen: Radko Gudas (R), Michal Kempny (L), Filip Hronek (R), Libor Hajek (L), David Jiricek (R) Jan Ruuta (R)
Extras: Jakub Krejcik (L), David Spacek (R)
The Breakdown: The defense corps is probably Czechia’s biggest weakness. If we use the metric of “how many current NHLers does this defense corps have?”, Team Czechia falls short of every other top-five country.
Indeed, while veteran hockey observers will recognize most names in our eight Czechia defensemen, the reality is that only Philadelphia’s Radko Gudas, Vancouver’s Filip Hronek, Minnesota’s David Jiricek and free-agent veteran Jan Rutta are currently playing in hockey’s best league. That’s something Czechia’s opponents will aim to take advantage of, and that’s something that Czechia’s coaches will want to address.
You don’t need every player on your team to be an NHLer to have success at the Olympics, but when half of your players aren’t NHLers, that speaks to your competitive depth. And that’s what Czechia will be dealing with on the blueline when the Games begin.
Goaltenders: Lukas Dostal, Karel Vejmelka, Vitek Vanecek
The Breakdown: Team Czechia’s goaltending may not have the best NHL numbers of anyone in the tournament, but in Lukas Dostal, ready to come into his own with the Anaheim Ducks now that John Gibson has been traded to the Detroit Red Wings, Czechia has its starting goalie.
If things go awry with Dostal between the pipes, there are a number of options for Czechia. The primary second option is Utah’s Karel Vejmelka, who was Czechia’s starter at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, when Czechia won gold.
Beyond Dostal and Vejmelka, the third goalie option we decided on was Utah’s Vitek Vanecek, whose stock certainly has dropped in recent years. But he’s still only 29 years old, and while other candidate Dan Vladar of the Flyers had slightly better individual numbers last season, Vanecek has more experience. And let’s not kid ourselves here – if Vanecek or Vejmelka is playing in the Olympics, something has gone terribly wrong with Dostal. Regardless of the “what if?” game, Dostal gives Czechia the best chances at winning games. And that’s what it’s all about.
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