Olympic Hockey Rosters to Include Several Maple Leafs in Upcoming Announcement

The NHL is headed back to the Olympics next year and there's going to be a lot of excitement and anticipation as we see who the best is the world is when it comes to ice hockey.

There is going to be dark horses, storybook endings, and a whole lot of hockey to be played, but when exactly will we know who is going to be on the teams?

According to Elliotte Friedman, the 12 teams that qualified for the Olympics will reveal their roster shortly. The teams are as follows:

- Canada

- Czechia

- Denmark

- Finland

- France

- Germany

- Italy

- Latvia

- Slovakia

- Sweden

- Switzerland

- USA

We've obviously got our powerhouses like Canada, the United States and Sweden, but we've also got some interesting teams like Latvia, Italy and France. While they won't necessarily be thought of as contenders; they have the chance to play spoiler and make for some wild results.

It's not going to be surprising to see a bunch of Maple Leafs (current and soon to be former) join the ranks of their respective countries.

Auston Matthews is going to be a part of Team USA, with Anthony Stolarz and Matthew Knies as potential candidates to make it.

Matthews has 12 points in 13 international contests but has yet to participate in the Olympics, meanwhile Stolarz only played five minutes for Team USA before being injured in 2021; Knies played for Team USA in 2022 in Beijing as the NHL was not yet back in the Games at that time.

Team Canada will have the departing Mitch Marner, and could also have John Tavares, Morgan Rielly, and Chris Tanev lineup for the team.

Marner has only played in the IIHF World Championships, but does have 10 points in 12 career international games. Tavares meanwhile has a very accomplished international career.

He won Olympic gold in 2014, and has a blistering 40 points in 41 games (19G, 21A).

Czechia will have the services of David Kampf more than likely, meanwhile Team Sweden will get the benefit of William Nylander, and potentially Oliver Ekman-Larsson on their back end.

Kampf played for Czechia a lot in his junior career, but did win a Gold as part of the team's 2024 World Championship. He has 10 points in 15 games (4G, 6A)

Meanwhile, Nylander has been fairly successful in the senior international circuit, scoring 38 points in 24 games (16G, 22A) and was the 2017 IIHF World Championship MVP.

Ekman-Larsson has appeared in the Olympics once before, coincidentally losing to Tavares' Canadian side in 2014. He has 44 points in 66 career games for Sweden (11G, 33A).

That's a pretty hefty haul of NHL talent, and it's going to be a lot of fun watching them go from allies to enemies for a month.

The 2026 Olympics are going to shape up to be something incredible; all we need to know now is who exactly gets the honour this time around.