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Boston Bruin Forward to Miss Olympics

Originally posted on Inside The Rink | By Matt Barry | Last updated Feb 7, 2026 1:19 PM ET

Boston Bruins forward Pavel Zacha has been ruled out for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 because of an upper-body injury. Team Czechia will replace Zacha with forward Filip Chlapik. Chlapik is a 28-year-old captain on HC Sparta Praha and has scored 19 goals with 25 assists in 45 games this season.

Zacha has not played since January 29, when he left in the second period of a 6-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers. Bruins coach Marco Sturm said the injury wasn’t serious enough to impact Zacha’s ability to play at the Olympics at the time. However, the injury has not healed as expected and the 28-year-old forward has elected to take the break to rest.

Zacha has 15 goals and 22 assists in 54 games this season for Boston and has anchored a productive second line with linemates Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson . The 6-foot-4, 210-pound forward was the sixth overall draft pick in the 2015 NHL Draft by New Jersey and obtained by Boston for forward Erik Haula in 2022.

Chlapik was a second-round pick, 48th overall, by the Ottawa Senators at the 2015 NHL Draft. He last played in the League during the 2020-21 season, playing one game for the Sens. He had 11 points in 57 games for Ottawa over four seasons.

Team Czechia plays its first game of the tournament against Team Canada on Thursday at 10:30 am EST. Fellow Boston Bruin teammate Davi Pastrnak is a member of Team Czechia also.

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This article first appeared on Inside The Rink and was syndicated with permission.

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