A Reaction to the 2026 American Olympic Hockey Roster

Hockey is arguably the best sport on earth. Fans are often treated to huge playoff upsets, wild trades, and intense drama, but the actual on-ice product remains the same. How do you improve what is ultimately an entertainment vehicle? It is a question that has plagued the National Hockey League head office for the better part of the last twelve years. 

Why such a specific timeframe? Twelve years ago marked the last time NHL players were allowed to represent their respective home countries at the Olympics due to the League’s aversion to high travel costs, schedule disruption, injury risk, and the COVID-19 pandemic. That hiatus has made Olympic hockey somewhat of a joke—what do the games matter if it is not best-on-best? Similarly, as we learned last year, a midseason international NHL tournament hits like lightning to the veins. 

Last year, the NHL recognized that players want to represent their homelands, and the league hosted the inaugural Four Nations Faceoff. The now-legendary, round-robin tournament pitted the NHL’s best from Sweden, Finland, Canada, and the United States against each other in matches played between Montreal and Boston. NHL fans knew they were being given the gift of peak entertainment. No one knew just how much it would dominate the broader sports world. 

The two times America and Canada faced off as rivals at Four Nations were quite “heated.” Game one opened with Canadian fans loudly booing the U.S.’s national anthem, promptly triggering three fights within the first nine seconds of the game. The United States would end up winning that match 3-1. When those teams faced off again in the finals, everyone was a little more focused on playing hockey rather than boxing, and Canada won the championship in a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory. 

The U.S.-Canada final was the most-watched hockey game on ESPN in history, with 9.3 million viewers. For the first time in my life, hockey was at the forefront of everyone’s mind. And though Canada walked away with the title, fans know that it is only tied! All that matters is who takes gold in Milan.

Since the Four Nations, every sports fan on Earth has a taste for best-on-best international hockey. If the Four Nations tournament, with no history behind it, was this heated, imagine the Olympics!

A few weeks ago, participating countries announced their 25-man 2026 Winter Olympic rosters. While many participating nations have NHL representation, we all know that hockey on the international scale largely comes down to two teams: Canada and the United States. 

So, knowing their last two match-ups and the intense emotions heading into these games, a prudent General Manager would select the best possible players to represent their nation. 

Team Canada’s GM has certainly done that. They have the two best players in the world in Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon and the best defenseman in the world in Cale Makar. They are also bringing experienced superstars who have already won gold at the Olympics in Sidney Crosby and Drew Doughty and exciting young talent in Macklin Celebrini and Thomas Harley. Pretty much every Canadian player you would expect to be there is there. It is a nearly perfectly constructed roster with strong defense and sharp offense. 

Now consider Team USA GM Bill Guerin. The only opponents who matter have put together a stacked lineup. He knew that America’s biggest problem at Four Nations was scoring. He knew the second biggest problem was defense. Out of all of the decisions Guerin could make, the choice to snub half of the leading American scorers in the NHL is beyond baffling.

Of the top 25 scorers in the NHL as of Jan. 6, only four of them were American. Of those four, two of them were left off of Team USA’s roster. One month later, the number of American players in the top 25 in scoring has climbed to eight. Of those eight, three of them will not be making the trip to Milan. Are you kidding me? 

The excluded players are Adam Fox ’19, Jason Robertson, Alex DeBrincat, and Cole Caufield. The latter three are all still in the top 25 in scoring, and although Fox is outside of that category, he remains one of the league’s best defensemen and his removal is offensive. While DeBrincat and Caufield are great and will be staples of America’s team for years to come, their omission is not cataclysmic. However, going to this tournament without Robertson and Fox might cost the United States the gold. 

The critique against Fox is simple. He was on the ice for Connor McDavid’s Four Nations-winning goal last year, he has been injured throughout this season, and the New York Rangers have been a complete disaster. None of that changes the fact that Adam Fox has been the third-best defenseman in the NHL every single year since he joined the league in 2019. His leadership and hockey IQ will be sorely missed. And though I am excited for young defenseman Jackson Lacombe, he is currently stratospherically below Fox. 

The omission of Jason Robertson from this roster should be on par with committing the Seven Deadly Sins. Robertson is a young, fast, prolific goal-scorer who, by all accounts, wears his heart on his sleeve and plays until he drops. He scored 109 points just two seasons ago and is currently on pace to score 95 this season. The sole argument people levy against Robertson is that he is not a defensively-minded player. They claim that Robertson only does one thing. That one thing being: he scores goals. What is hockey? A goal-scoring contest! The team that scores more goals wins 100% of the time, and Guerin left the top-scoring American off of the Olympic roster. Utter insanity. 

The construction of America’s Olympic team is indicative of a wider issue that has plagued USA hockey for the last 46 years. Ever since the Miracle on Ice in 1980, American hockey professionals and fans alike have taken the late, great Herb Brooks’ quote from the film adaptation to heart: “I’m not looking for the best players, I’m looking for the right ones.” This mentality paved the way for a team of college students to upset the greatest hockey team the world had ever known. 

Times have changed. America is no longer the underdog. The United States is home to some of the most talented hockey players in NHL history, and we need to start acting like it. Why would you ever not put the best players on the ice? Why are we prioritizing multiple players over the age of 32 instead of a guy who pumps in goals like he is playing a video game? 

At the end of the day, with Robertson and Fox or not, Team USA has one job at the Olympics: win. Make your country proud, play until you have nothing left to give, and as Stefon Diggs once said, “If it don’t got a blue jersey on, hit that shit!”

Jordan Wasserberger ’27 (jwasserberger@college.harvard.edu) is half-considering flying to Milan tomorrow.