5 Former Canucks Who Made Notable Impressions In Their First Games Of The 2026 Winter Olympics

After today, all men’s hockey teams taking part in the 2026 Winter Olympics have officially played in one game during the preliminary round. Five former Vancouver Canucks made notable impressions in their respective appearances, from scoring goals to noticeably not getting any ice time. Here are some notable parts from these five former Canucks’ first games of the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

In his Olympic debut, Horvat showed fans why Canada picked him by scoring a beautiful goal off a partial break by speeding past two Czech defenders and putting the puck past Lukáš Dostál. The forward played a surprisingly short amount of time — the fourth-lowest on his team with 9:54 — but put up two shots on top of his goal. 

Ekman-Larsson’s return to the Olympics went the reverse of a few players’ impressions. Despite dressing for Sweden in their 5–2 win against Italy, the defenceman actually didn’t end up playing in a single shift, finishing the game with 0:00 minutes played. He wasn’t the only player to send eyebrows raising at their ice time, however, as Filip Forsberg played in only a little over one minute during this game as well.  

Forsling never played a game for the Canucks, but as his career has progressed, many fans likely wish that he did. The defenceman scored Sweden’s second goal in their first game of the tournament and also added an assist on Victor Hedman’s empty-net goal in the win. Forsling’s ice time was on the lower side for Sweden’s defencemen this game, coming in at 18:53, though he did still manage to put five shots on goal. 

As well as registering his first two Olympic points off goals by Tage Thompson and Auston Matthews, Hughes was noticeable throughout the game — as he always is — calling for the puck often and jumping up into the O-zone to help his team generate more offence. He theoretically scored to give his team the 2–0 lead, though it was called back due to the entry being deemed offside. Unsurprisingly, no U.S. player came close to Hughes’ TOI today, as the defenceman logged 21:29 minutes. 

Miller’s first game at the 2026 Winter Olympics went a couple of ways. On one hand, he had a slick feed to Hughes on the defenceman’s disallowed goal. On the other hand, his presence in Latvia’s crease on what would have been Team USA’s third goal of the game (including the Hughes goal) ended up being called for goaltender interference. He finished the game with 12:12 minutes played. 

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