2026 Olympic participation. What are the lineups?

[PepsiFree]

Three years ago the best goaltenders included Nedeljkovic, Varlamov, Drieger, Fleury, Smith, and Campbell.

All in the top ten for SV%

This year? None of them are top ten, and only two of them are even in the top 40.

Pretending we can predict what the goaltending situation is going to be like in 2026 is hilarious.

[Funkhouser]

So after reading these, Team Canada could look like:

Cozens - McDavid - Marner
Thomas - MacKinnon - Kyrou
Bedard - Crosby - Konecny
Suzuki - Point - Barzal
K. Johnson, Fantilli

Power - Makar
Morrissey - Chychrun
Chabot - Byram
Theodore

???
Jarry/Levi/Thompson/Skinner
_______

Still think the USA will dominate.

Robertson - Matthews - Eichel
B Tkachuk - J Hughes - M Tkachuk
Keller - T Thompson - Tuch
Larkin - Beniers - Connor
Gaudreau - Zegras

Slavin - Fox
Q Hughes - McAvoy
Werenski - Seth Jones
L. Hughes

Oettinger
Swayman/Hellebuyck

________

What does team Sweden look like??

Bratt - Pettersson - Nylander
Forsberg - Zibanejad - Raymond
Eklund - Lindholm - Holtz
Eriksson Ek - Carlsson - Arvidsson

Hedman - Brodin
Dahlin - R. Andersson
Kylington - Boqvist
Edvinsson

Gustavsson
Wallstedt

[Robbob]

Interesting that when pondering the line-up. A player like McDavid may only go to one Olympics. He will be pushing 30 when the 2026 Olympics roll by. Just not all whole lot of best on best in this format for those players that have graduated into the NHL the last decade. Will be nice if they can get their ducks in a row to make this happen.

[CroFlames]

Gaudreau not in the lineup for USA? Come on now.

[powderjunkie]

Forsberg - Zibanejad - Nylander
Kempe - Pettersson - Raymond
W Karlsson - Eriksson Ek - Lindholm
Olofsson - Backlund 36 - Bratt

(Just used this year's stats - I'm sure some young'ns will displace)

Hedman 35 - Andersson
Dahlin - Karlsson 35
Lindholm - Brodin

Ekholm 35/Larsson/Forsling/Bunch of young guys

Ullmark
Gustavsson

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by transplant99

YOu really kind of don't know though....3 years from now any guy could be on fire for some set time and be the best in the game in that window of time.

Canada could also be without any real great G's for those games.

We just do not know.

"Goalies are voodoo", isnt just a saying, its based on the wild swings that particular position sees year after year.

Predicting doom and gloom 3 years out is fools play.

If you were predicting who would finish in the top 10 for save percentage over the past 4 seasons when playing in at least half the games you would be very successful if you went with any of the following names

Ullmark - twice and just missed the third time (Sweden)
Hellebuyck - 3 times (USA)
Saros - 3 times (Fnland)
Shersterkin - 3 times (every year he has basically played) (Russia)
Vasilevsky - 3 times (Russia)
Sorokin - 2 times (every year he has played and qualified, did not get enough starts in 20-21 but would have been had he started 6 more times) (Russia)

So basically 6 of the top 10 positions are locked up each year. Is it possible for others to squeak in and have a good year, sure. But goaltending is pretty consistent, year in and year out amongst the elite, who are the goalies who presumably will play at the Olympics.

[PepsiFree]

If you tried predicting that list 4 years ago you might have gotten 2 or 3 names correct, though.

[Funkhouser]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

If you tried predicting that list 4 years ago you might have gotten 2 or 3 names correct, though.

Three years ago we probably would have predicted McDavid, Marner, Mackinnon, Point, Barzal, Makar, Theodore, Chabot

[boogerz]

2026 is probably easier to predict than the last olympics. The last generation (e.g . Toews, Doughty, Pietrangelo, Getzlaf, Bergeron, Price, etc.) were all aged 30+ at the last Olympics, whereas the new generation is just hitting their stride.

The locks for the potential 2026 olympic team (e.g. McDavid, MacKinnon, Marner, Point, Makar, Theodore, Chabot, Power, etc.) are all aged 27 or younger as of today. If we're less than three years away from 2026, there is very little likelihood that those players take themselves out of contention (barring injuries)

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

If you tried predicting that list 4 years ago you might have gotten 2 or 3 names correct, though.

Fact of the matter is any way you slice it Canada's goaltending is awful. Not even top 3 in the world. It is not like there is some stud that everyone is talking about that is expected to be great in 3 years. I am fairly confident that outside of possibly Levi there is not a Canadian goalie out there that is not on the radar yet. Out of the 52 goalies who played 25 NHL games or more last year, the following 14 are Canadian

Jordan Binnington
Darcy Kuemper
Carter Hart
Stuart Skinner
Martin Jones
Tristan Jarry
Marc-Andre Fleury
James Reimer
Jake Allen
Samuel Montembeault
Cam Talbot
Spencer Martin
Connor Ingram
Adin Hill
Matt Murray

Pick whatever three you want from that group, it does not matter, Canada's goaltending will be bottom of the barrel at the Olympics. The following countries have the following goaltenders that will almost certainly be considered better than whatever Canada can throw together in less than three years

Finland - Soros. Competitive with whatever Canada has will be their other two goalies Husso and Korpisalo

USA - Hellebuyck, Oettinger. Unlike Canada they have a number of younger goalies that could be good in 3 years (Swayman, Knight, Woll)

Russia - Vasilevski, Sorokin, Shesterkin. Also have Georgiev, Samsonov in the wings if their big 3 falter.

Sweden - Ullmark. Also have Markstrom

Czech - Vanecek.

Canada is in with Germany (Grubauer), Denmark (Andersen) and Czech in terms of goaltending. Clearly below Finalnd, USA, Russia and Sweden. Somewhere between 5th and 7th best in the world for the starting goalie.

[Scroopy Noopers]

I like the Levi pick for Canada. I anticipate he’ll be a top 3 goalie in the league by then.

[Table 5]

So what the hell happened to Canadian goaltending? This country was stacked with elite goalies in the 90s (Roy, Brodeur, Belfour, Joseph, Vernon, Fuhr, Burke etc). It might be foolish to expect that kind of depth, but outside of Fleury and Price, it seems like a position that has been especially thin for years in terms of elite talent. Is Sigalet in charge or something?

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Table 5

So what the hell happened to Canadian goaltending? This country was stacked with elite goalies in the 90s (Roy, Brodeur, Belfour, Joseph, Vernon, Fuhr, Burke etc). It might be foolish to expect that kind of depth, but outside of Fleury and Price, it seems like a position that has been especially thin for years in terms of elite talent. Is Sigalet in charge or something?

There was a lot of blame on import goalies taking CHL jobs. There was a ban implemented for 4 years which has since been lifted.

[transplant99]

Much to the dismay of the doom and gloomers around Canadian hockey,,,,i would say the country is doing just fine and thanks to Gord Miller for compiling this.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1687904552320704512

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Much to the dismay of the doom and gloomers around Canadian hockey,,,,i would say the country is doing just fine and thanks to Gord Miller for compiling this.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1687904552320704512

Fair, but none of those are best on best. They're either best available or best with a stipulation. I'm not a doom and gloomer at all, just pointing out a caveat.

[_Q_]

I think our skaters are good to great. Where this team falls short is goaltending. If a new goalie can emerge in the next 3 years, we should easily challenge for a gold medal.

[VilleN]

We’ll challenge for a Gold medal regardless of goaltending. We are still the team to beat at any best on best tournament.

[CliffFletcher]

Canada has always been the clear favourite going into best-of-best tournaments. But the way things are trending we’ll soon find the U.S. co-favourites for every tournament.

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by VilleN

We’ll challenge for a Gold medal regardless of goaltending. We are still the team to beat at any best on best tournament.

In the last actual best on best tournament played, the 2014 Olympics, team Canada would have won the gold with the best CHL goalie in net.

They gave up somewhere around 2 scoring chances in the entire medal round.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Canada has always been the clear favourite going into best-of-best tournaments. But the way things are trending we’ll soon find the U.S. co-favourites for every tournament.

Until the US actually starts winning with some consistency, they will not be co-favourites.