Breaking down Team USA’s 2026 Olympic men’s hockey roster

Last February at the 4 Nations Faceoff, Team USA got its first shot to unseat Canada from its perch atop the hockey universe since a catastrophic World Cup campaign in 2016. Another tournament, unfortunately, ended in another heartbreak courtesy of Team Canada. 

The USA braintrust, led by Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin, came under fire for its roster construction at the 4 Nations, which favored experience and grit over high-end talent. Have Guerin and Co. changed course to get more scorers on the plane to Milan, or do they still believe their 4 Nations group, which came within a goal of the Gold last year, can get the job done? Read on for the full roster selection and analysis.

FORWARDS (14)

Matt Boldy (MIN)
Kyle Connor (WPG)
Jack Eichel (VGK)
Jake Guentzel (TB)
Jack Hughes (NJ)
Clayton Keller (UTA)
Dylan Larkin (DET)
Auston Matthews (TOR)
J.T. Miller (NYR)
Brock Nelson (COL)
Tage Thompson (BUF)
Brady Tkachuk (OTT)
Matthew Tkachuk (FLA)
Vincent Trocheck (NYR)

DEFENSEMEN (8)

Brock Faber (MIN)
Noah Hanifin (VGK)
Quinn Hughes (MIN)
Seth Jones (FLA)
Charlie McAvoy (BOS)
Jake Sanderson (OTT)
Jaccob Slavin (CAR)
Zach Werenski (CBJ)

GOALTENDERS (3)

Connor Hellebuyck (WPG)
Jake Oettinger (DAL)
Jeremy Swayman (USA)

Brothers Brady and Matthew Tkachuk, whose dad, Keith, helped the Americans win the Gold at the 1996 World Cup, won hearts and minds stateside by crashing around opposition zones like human pinballs at the 4 Nations. The standout performance of the younger, bigger Brady at that tournament earned him an early berth on the Olympic roster alongside Matt, a perennial 60-assist threat working his way back from an offseason operation. Existing chemistry matters on the international stage, so expect coach Mike Sullivan to use the Tkachuks’ 4 Nations line with top Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel early and often.

Getting Auston Matthews back to his lethal best is a puzzle the Toronto Maple Leafs have been trying to solve for more than a year, and Sullivan might need a few tries to get his unit right. At least Sullivan knows he can rely on leading American goal-scorer Matt Boldy (25), Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, and former Pittsburgh Penguins pupil Jake Guentzel to make an impact regardless of deployment; all three men gained the bench boss’s trust as the 4 Nations wore on.

Guerin is sticking with veterans Trocheck and Nelson for their versatility and penalty killing despite the considerable criticism their selections warranted last go around. Embattled New York Rangers captain J.T. Miller kept his spot, too, so Chris Kreider is the odd man out from the 4 Nations. Utah Mammoth playmaker Clayton Keller and Buffalo Sabres sniper Tage Thompson, two of the heroes of Team USA’s first World Championship victory in more than 90 years, are new additions.

On the blueline, the Americans should have the most Norris-level defenders in the field. That’s even after leaving an actual Norris winner, Adam Fox, at home. Quinn Hughes leads the group as one of the best stickhandlers and passers in the sport. Hughes trade to the Wild last month gives Sullivan a chance to deploy him alongside new defensive partner Brock Faber, whose defensive play at the 4 Nations helped get him to Milan as much as a bounce-back season with the Wild.

Sullivan’s son-in-law, Charlie McAvoy, quickly emerged as an emotional leader for Team USA last time out for his punishing open ice hits and outgoing personality; McAvoy will hope to patrol the right side for the entirety of the Olympics after a medical gaffe cut his 4 Nations (and season) short in 2025. With Hughes, 4 Nations scoring leader Zach Werenski, Ottawa Senators speedster Jake Sanderson, and Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin expected to draw into the starting group as left shots, someone, likely Slavin or Werenski, will have to shift to his off side. Rangy righty Seth Jones’s lengthy history with Werenski in Columbus could come into play if Slavin, the most respected defensive defenseman in the sport, is not fully recovered from his second lengthy injury absence of the season by February.

With the Russians at home, Team USA should have a comfortable lead in the shot-stopping department. Though he’s in a rough patch (1-4-3, .894 SV% since returning from injury on 12/13) with the struggling Winnipeg Jets, reigning Hart Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck remains the top goalie on the planet. His strong play at the 4 Nations (1.59 GAA, .932 SV%) brought him within a goal of MVP honors and should assuage concerns about his big game record. Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman offer unflappable consistency and a game-stealing ceiling, respectively, as the backups. The group is unchanged from the 4 Nations.

Biggest reach

While the selections of Nelson and Trocheck last year were savaged as the sort of regressive thinking that led to the 2016 World Cup debacle, J.T. Miller’s place on the team was a foregone conclusion. Miller was a 100-point forechecking beast who’d gone head-to-head with Canada’s golden child Connor McDavid in the preceding playoffs. Miller’s physicality, versatility, and matchup ability should have made him a coach’s dream in a high-intensity tournament like the 4 Nations. Instead, Miller was a ghost when he wasn’t getting punched by Canadian behemoth Colton Parayko. Miller had no points to show for his international adventure even after he started miming for a dinged-up Matt Tkachuk in the top six.

A rough 4 Nations must not have been damning during this selection process if Jack Hughes, Kyle Connor, and, yes, Nelson and Trocheck made the cut, but Miller has been poor at the NHL level since the new season kicked off. Despite an excellent start to his return to New York last season (35 P in 32 GP), the veteran firebrand has been a sulky captain whose sagging production (22 P, -11 in 35 GP) often prompted Sullivan to flex him out to the wing for the Rangers before an injury shelved Miller on Dec. 20. 

If Guerin is worried about being covered at center in case of injury, Nelson alone would have sufficed; he’s in excellent form for Colorado (10 G, 18 P in last 15 GP), and Jack Hughes and Tage Thompson, both centers for their NHL teams, can operate down the middle just fine. If Guerin wanted some heft on the wings in the bottom six, both Matthew Knies and Alex Tuch are more dangerous than the 2026 version of Miller. Everything about Miller’s selection implies Sullivan and Rangers’ GM Chris Drury, also on the selection committee, were scared of running afoul of a notoriously temperamental player. Why should the rest of the country care? More so than Nelson or even his lifelong friend Trocheck, Miller sticks out in all the wrong ways.

Biggest omission

By name and by pedigree, Fox is the biggest cut here, especially given that the Rangers’ shotcallers somehow got Miller and Trocheck on the plane. Fox has been made the chief scapegoat for the blown coverage that allowed Canada to triumph in overtime at the 4 Nations, even as players who were worse at that tournament and are worse, period, are off to the Olympics. Fox is admittedly an average skater who’s at his best when dictating the pace with the puck on his stick, not exactly an option in 1,000 mph USA-Canada matchups, but not every game is against Canada. Fox’s passing, right shot, and power-play experience all could have proved useful for injury cover and spot duty against stubborn defenses at the very least. He’s having an excellent, revelatory season under Sullivan, too. You wonder what their relationship will look like after this.

Still, based on need, Fox can’t be the biggest miss. The Team USA blueline is still brilliant without him. The real puzzlers are among the forward group. Even if Alex DeBrincat and Cole Caufield were lazily cut for their diminutive frames, Jason Robertson has all the size, defensive sensibility, and toughness on the wall the USA brass has obsessed over for three decades. Oh, and he also has more points (48) than any other American. That’s supposed to matter.

The hypocrisy it would have taken to select Jack Hughes, a perpetually injured walking billboard for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, or Clayton Keller, clearly getting a rub for captaining the U.S. to victory at the World Championship despite a pedestrian season (36 P in 41 GP), over Robertson, who is bigger and better than either player, astounds. Add in another tournament of Trocheck and Miller’s “grit,” and it seems Guerin, Drury, and the boys will need to lose (again) to learn to take their best players, not their favorite.

Burning Question

Were the Americans a Hughes and McAvoy away from Gold last February? The 4 Nations should have been the perfect storm for Team USA. Without the injured Quinn Hughes and McAvoy, though, the Americans’ superior depth on the wings, on the blueline, and in goal weren’t enough to offset Canada’s superstar talent. By taking a largely unchanged group, Guerin is betting the now-healthy duo would make the difference should the North American powerhouses meet again. Is he underrating an ostensibly improved Team Canada that has added Macklin Celebrini and improved its goaltending since they last met? And by leaving Robertson, DeBrincat, and Caufield at home, is he miscounting the goals it will take to earn a rematch with America’s hockey big brother?

Projected Lines

Tkachuk-Eichel-Tkachuk
Connor-Matthews-J. Hughes
Guentzel-Larkin-Boldy
Miller-Nelson-Thompson
Keller-Trocheck

Q. Hughes-Faber
Werenski-McAvoy
Sanderson-Slavin
Hanifin-Jones

Hellebuyck
Oettinger
Swayman

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