Italy unveils men’s roster for 2026 Winter Olympics

The home team has its troops ready to represent their country on the biggest stage in sports.

On Tuesday, the Italian Ice Sports Federation announced it’s men’s hockey roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics was revealed.

The 25-man roster is made up of players who play domestically and around Europe. They will certainly have their hands full against some of the best players in the world, but the group will surely embrace the opportunity to play at the Winter Games.

The selection process refrained from the team using heritage connections to get NHLers onto its roster, rather the team being a true European-based roster for the tournament in Milan.

There are number of players with North American ties on the roster. Goaltender Damian Clara was taken by the Anaheim Ducks in the second round of the 2023 NHL Draft. A long time member of the Italian National Team, he played a pair of games with the Ducks’ American Hockey League affiliate, the San Diego Gulls. He returned to Sweden and has been playing with Brynas of the SHL, posting a record of 15-12-0 in 28 appearances.

Here’s the full Italian men’s roster set to take to the ice next month:

Forwards: Matthew Bradley, Tommaso De Luca, Cristiano DiGiacinto, Luca Frigo, Mikael Frycklund, Dustin Gazley, Diego Kostner, Daniel Mantenuto, Giovanni Morini, Alexander Petan, Tommy Purdeller, Nick Saracino, Alessandro Segafredo, Marco Zanetti

Defensemen: Dylan Di Perna, Gregory Di Tomaso, Daniel Glira, Thomas Larkin, Phil Pietroniro, Jason Seed, Alex Trivellato, Luca Zanatta

Goaltenders: Damian Clara, Davide Fadani, Gianluca Vallini

This is just the first time Italy will be playing in the Olympic hockey tournament since the country last hosted the Winter Games in Turin 20 years ago. In the “NHL era” of the Olympics, Italy finished 12th in Nagano in 1998 before ending up 11th in 2006. The country’s best finish in men’s ice hockey came in 1956, in Cortina, as the hosts finished seventh in the 10-team tournament.

Italy will be in tough in Group B, having to go up against the likes of Sweden, Finland and Slovakia.

Here is Italy’s schedule for its group stage games:

• Wednesday, Feb. 11: Sweden vs. Italy, 3:10 p.m. ET
• Friday, Feb. 13: Italy vs. Slovakia, 6:10 a.m. ET
• Saturday, Feb. 14: Finland vs. Italy, 10:40 a.m. ET

The play-off round will take place on Feb. 17, with the quarterfinals taking place the following day. Both semifinal games will occur on Feb. 20. The bronze medal game will be held on Feb. 21, with the tournament culminating on Feb. 22 with the gold medal game.