With eight months to go until the NHL makes its return to the Winter Olympics after a twelve year absence, the provisional rosters for each of the twelve participating men’s nations were revealed today by each nations’ respective international association, naming six active professionals to each roster that will face off in Milan in February 2026.

While there is no timetable for the full rosters to be revealed, the NHL and IIHF were looking to capitalize on the ongoing Stanley Cup Finals to reveal the first six from each roster, which unlike February’s Four Nations Face-Off, expands to players from seven different leagues across the globe, although the majority are from NHL rosters. While the Four Nations was technically the first “best on best” tournament since 2016, this will be the first open tournament for best on best since the 2014 Sochi Olympics, allowing for the top players from all qualified nations to participate, and will mark the Olympic debut for some of the game’s biggest stars, like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Auston Matthews.

Speaking of McDavid and Draisaitl, they represent two of the seven players currently in the Stanley Cup Final named to the games, alongside Florida’s Alexander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Matthew Tkachuk, Uvis Balinskis and Nico Sturm. While the Games will mark the Olympic debut for some of the game’s newest stars, there will be sixteen players with previous Olympic experience, either from Sochi (such as Sidney Crosby and Gabriel Landeskog), or those who have participated since, but prior to their NHL careers (such as Miro Heiskanen and Juraj Slafkovský).

The provisional players for all participating men’s national teams at the 2026 Winter Olympics (with their current team noted in parentheses, and league if not the NHL) are as follows:

Photo Credit: The Union Democrat – IIHF – HHOF – IOC