With the NHL announcing last week that it would be returning to the Olympics in 2026, which current Ottawa Senators are likely to make it to Milan?
When the next Winter Games roll around, the NHL will be there and the Ottawa Senators should be fairly well represented. So we decided to have a glance at which players might be in the mix.
Team Canada
There isn’t anyone on the Sens' roster right now who’s tracking to be on the Canadian team.
If the games were happening tomorrow, Claude Giroux would probably have the best chance to crack Canada's roster. Giroux is an elite faceoff specialist, stands 18th in points per game among Canadian forwards, and has hockey sense for days. He's also been a great Hockey Canada soldier, playing in everything but the Olympics, winning gold at the World Cup, World Championships and World Juniors.
But, this just in, the games aren’t tomorrow. They’re still two years off and, at 38, Giroux's current status as a long shot will probably have faded.
On the blue line, Jakob Chychrun might have an outside chance, but he's also a long shot, just based on his Canadian competition. Chychrun’s strength is the offensive side of his game and even if we just measured that alone, there are superior options. Chychrun is tied for 12th among Canadian NHL defencemen with 0.6 points per game.
Thomas Chabot will surely be mentioned in some circles, but his game isn't close to being at a Team Canada best-on-best Olympic level.
Team Czechia
Although he probably won't be a Senator much longer, Dominik Kubalik is a certainty for Czechia in 2026. Kubalik was nails at last year’s world championships, finishing second in tournament scoring. Sens' farm hand Jiri Smejkal might be a possibility too. Smejkal has represented his country internationally six times, including the last Olympics and the last two World Championships.
Team Denmark
There are only two Danish goalies who’ve played NHL games this season. One is Freddy Anderson who will be almost 36 and has been injury prone. The other is Mads Sogaard, 11 years his junior. Sogaard is a great bet to join the Greatest Danes in Milan.
Team Finland
Joonas Korpisalo hasn't had a great season but he's a goalie in good standing with Team Finland. He and Juuse Saros are the only two NHL Finnish goalies to play more than 30 games this season.
Team Germany
Tim Stutzle. There's no chance that anyone needs a summary of why Stutzle will absolutely be on the German team. He's not just a slam dunk for the 2026 Olympics, he's a slam dunk for the next four after that.
Team Sweden
Anton Forsberg also hasn't had a great season but he might get a look a third stringer behind Linus Ullmark and Jacob Markstrom.
Team Russia (Olympic Athletes of Russia?)
Artem Zub has been a solid top-four defenceman in Ottawa. If he made the Russian team, my first thought was that it would be mainly because of his defence. But – fun fact – he’s the fourth highest scoring Russian NHL defenceman in points per game (0.44). Vladimir Tarasenko ranks eighth among Russian forwards (0.73) and also has a good chance to make the “don't-call-them-Russia” team. As with Kubalik, there’s also a good chance Tarasenko won’t be a Senator in two years.
Team USA
The American roster will be just as tough to crack as Canada’s, but Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson are definitely in the mix, and they'll be better players in two years than they are right now.
Tkachuk has an outside chance at a 40 goal season and stands 16th in American forward scoring (0.87). He's a power forward that can play any kind of game you want. Sanderson is 10th in American D scoring and his skating and puck handling erase almost every youthful mistake, which in two years, will likely be few and far between.
Tkachuk and Sanderson aren’t slam dunks to make the team, but they are extremely good bets, especially with the assumption that we haven’t seen their best yet.
At the moment, Shane Pinto and Josh Norris aren’t even in the second-tier of American possibilities at centre, let alone the top group with names like Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes, J.T. Miller, Jack Eichel and Dylan Larkin.
But who knows? A lot can happen in two years.