Olympic roster will be test to see if USA Hockey has learned from mistakes

The United States is expected to announce its roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics men's hockey tournament on Friday, and it will be a significant test as to whether or not the organization has learned from its previous mistakes. 

Early indications are it may not have.

USA Hockey seems set in its flawed ways

For what might be the first time in decades, the United States has finally reached a point where its talent pool is on the same level as Canada's. Not only in terms of high-end talent, but also in terms of depth.

There is no reason why the United States team, given the talent it has to pick from, should not be entering the 2026 games as one of the top favorites to win the whole thing.  All it has to do is make the smart decisions and take the right players.

Contrary to what the 2004 movie "Miracle" might have told you, the right players are, in fact, the best players. The United States team has not always operated with that mindset. 

The measuring-stick players for this roster and the job management does in building it are going to be Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson and New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox. 

If the United States had a clear vision and was simply taking its best players, both of them would be slam-dunk choices. No-brainer choices. Easy choices. 

Robertson, as of Tuesday, has more goals and more total points than any American-born player. But after being left off last year's 4 Nations Face-Off roster, every indication leading into Friday suggests he is still on the outside looking in for this team. Not taking him would not only be setting the team up to fail, but setting it up to fail in the same way it always does — not scoring enough goals in the biggest games. 

Fox, meanwhile, already has a Norris Trophy on his resume, is in the prime of his career and is as impactful offensively as almost any defenseman in the league. He also seems to be fighting for a roster spot with Seth Jones and Noah Hanifin. 

If this is the direction the United States goes in, it would simply be doubling down on the same losing formula that has held it back in so many previous best-on-best tournaments involving NHL players. 

The United States hasn't actually won one of these things since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, and that was its first major win since the 1980 Winter Olympics with the Miracle On Ice. In every major tournament since then, it has consistently fallen short, and a lack of goal-scoring against the best teams is always the root cause of it.  

Sometimes that lack of goal-scoring has been the result of the United States simply not having the talent pool to pick from. In recent years, and in recent tournaments, it has been due to it being stuck in the wrong mindset of trying to build its rosters like it is an NHL team with NHL constraints.

There is no need to take grinders and checkers over superior talents. You do not need "third-line role players" on these teams. The only reason those roles exist in the NHL is because there are not enough high-end players to fill 32 rosters in a salary-capped league. Teams have to contend with financial limitations, they have to deal with free agency, they are competing with so many other teams.

That is not the case with an Olympic team. Teams have unlimited resources here. They do not have to limit the skill on their rosters. The safest and smoothest path to victory is understanding the right players are, in fact, the best players.