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Zach Werenski’s two goals helped extend his home points streak to 17 games. (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

3 Blue Jackets That Could Be on Olympic Rosters

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Nicholas Arnold | Last updated Aug 20, 2025 9:45 AM ET

It’s hard to believe that the 2026 Olympic Games are only six months away, for a couple of reasons. First, it’s tough to believe we’ve almost made it to 2026 and somehow still don’t have flying cars. But it’s also tough to comprehend because this cycle’s Olympic hockey tournament will be the first in 12 years in which NHL players are allowed to compete. For context, a child born just after the 2014 Sochi tournament will have made it to the seventh grade before seeing NHL players fighting for gold on the biggest stage in the world. What a travesty, and thank goodness that ship has been righted.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are an organization on the upswing. After a half-decade of negative headlines, decline, and rebuilding, the team took a massive step forward and narrowly missed the postseason in 2025. That came on the backs of some pretty talented players who elevated their games to an all-world level. Some of those players could appear in their home country’s colors at the 2026 Games.

We’ll take a look at three players from Ohio’s team that could claim roster spots in the tournament. We’ll go in order of most likely to least likely of the candidates to represent their nations in Italy next February.

Elvis Merzlikins – Team Latvia

The Blue Jackets’ goalie, Elvis Merzlikins, is a lock to once again represent his country at the national level, which is because he’s already been named to the team. Let’s go through his resume anyway. He’s been the Latvian starter at six World Championships since 2015-16, which was four seasons before he even made his NHL debut. He’s played in 31 games with a 13-17-0 record in those tournaments and has a .907 save percentage (SV%). That history, combined with the fact that he’s only 31 years old and still a starting goalie in the NHL, should be enough to give him the first start in Italy.

Earlier this morning, Latvia selected its preliminary six players for the #MilanoCortina #Olympics! pic.twitter.com/73UMOnCf6W
— NHL (@NHL) June 16, 2025

Merzlikins will not be uncontested for the starting role in the Latvian crease, as he was for a decent number of years. Pittsburgh Penguins’ goalie Arturs Silovs—who was also already named to the team—will give him a run for his money. Silovs was named the most valuable player in this June’s American Hockey League (AHL) Playoffs when he was a member of the Abbotsford Canucks. He also already showed the ability to play well under pressure when he put the Vancouver Canucks on his back and almost singlehandedly willed them into the second round of the 2024 NHL Playoffs. Internationally, Silovs has a 9-5-0 record at the World Championships with Latvia and a .929 SV%. The 24-year-old certainly seems to be the future of the nation’s crease, so we’ll have to see if the metaphorical torch is passed while the Olympic torch is lit in Milan.

Zach Werenski – Team USA

I know there are a lot more elite American defenders than in decades past, so there’s going to be a lot of competition to get a roster spot, but Zach Werenski is as close to a lock as you can get. While he wasn’t one of the first six named to the team, his breakout 2024-25 season has elevated his status as one of the league’s premier rearguards.

Zach Werenski’s two goals helped extend his home points streak to 17 games. (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

The only thing that could derail his appearance in the red, white, and blue would be an injury or a complete and utterly disastrous start to the season. Werenski led the Blue Jackets in scoring last season, and he was the runner-up for the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the league’s top defenseman. There’s no way Columbus would’ve been as close to a playoff spot as they were without him. The other thing for him is that he has a history of performing in pressure situations.

He was the captain of the 2016 American World Junior Team and led the tournament in scoring by a defender. He has scored 13 points in 15 games through his last two appearances in the World Championships, including the Americans’ first gold medal at the tournament. Most importantly, he was outstanding for the Americans at the 4 Nations Face-Off. He not only led his team in scoring, but his six assists were enough to lead the tournament in scoring. While yes, 16 defensemen were invited to the Team USA Olympic orientation camp, one of those few roster spots will be given to Werenski.

Isac Lundestrom – Team Sweden

If Russia was allowed in the Olympic Games this cycle, there would be another three Blue Jackets who would be guaranteed to appear in Italy. However, political tensions have not eased, and therefore Kirill Marchenko, Dmitri Voronkov, and Ivan Provorov will all have to wait at least another four years to wear their nation’s colors while vying for a gold medal.

Without them, to be honest, I was scrounging for a third player who could sneak onto an Olympic roster. I think I’ve found one. This guy may be a bit of a stretch, especially with all of the high-end skill talent that’s come out of Sweden in the past few years, but new Blue Jacket Isac Lundeström could be a sleeper to at least make the trip as an extra roster player.

Lundeström has a decent history with Team Sweden, representing the country at two World Juniors and three World Championships. He contributed decently as a depth player with 11 points in 27 games at the World Championship. The first-round draft pick fell out of favor and his production dipped over the last few seasons with the Anaheim Ducks. However, if he is able to come to Ohio and become a solid defensive option who specializes in the penalty kill and somehow finds a bit more of a scoring touch, he certainly could be an option for the yellow and blue. It’s a lot of ifs, but there is a path. Hey, if career fourth-line center Marcus Kruger could be an Olympian for Sweden in 2014, who’s to say Lundeström couldn’t find a place in the roster in a similarly defensive role?

The hockey world is agog in waiting for the rosters to be released in the first true best-on-best Olympic tournament in over a decade. Debate and speculation are going to fill webpages and monopolize water cooler conversations over the next six months. For the Blue Jackets to have a couple of players as locks to be active in the tournament and maybe one more sneaking in as an extra body, it will be invigorating to the fanbase.