Multiple Avalanche stars named to respective Olympic rosters for 2026 Games

The hockey rosters for the 2026 Olympic Games in Italy are starting to take shape, and the Colorado Avalanche already have their fingerprints all over the tournament

BY TRENT FINNEGAN

Jun 16, 2025, 10:55 AM Updated: 11:04 am

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(Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

The 2026 Winter Olympics are just under eight months away, and the Colorado Avalanche will have their fingerprints all over the men’s hockey tournament when the competition kicks off from Italy in early February next year. On Monday, various countries announced the first six players of their preliminary rosters, with multiple Avalanche players being named.

This is the first time since the 2014 Games in Sochi that NHL players will be allowed to compete in the Olympics since the NHL didn’t allow players to play in the 2022 Beijing Games due to COVID-19 restrictions and couldn’t come to agreements with the IOC in the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.

Nathan MacKinnon – Canada

This will be MacKinnon’s third time competing for Canada in a 12-month span after being named the MVP of the 4 Nations Face-Off in February and scoring the second-most goals out of any player in the IIHF World Championships in May. Canada won the 4 Nations Face-Off, but was on the wrong side of a monumental upset as the squad bowed out in the quarterfinals.

MacKinnon, 29, will be playing in his 11th international competition (first Olympics), ninth in seniors. He has tallied 24 goals and 24 assists in 43 games played at the senior level for Team Canada.

Gabriel Landeskog – Sweden

Landeskog being named to Sweden’s Olympic team is yet another remarkable milestone in his long road back from injury over the past three years. It took multiple surgeries and almost three years off the ice for the Avalanche captain to make it back in time for the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs — in which he was one of the best players on the ice for Colorado throughout the five games he played — and he now seems to be as back normal as possible following such a serious injury.

This will be the ninth time that Landeskog, who is from Stockholm, will represent the blue and yellow in international competition. He helped lead Sweden to two gold medals in the IIHF World Championships in 2013 and 2017 along with a silver medal in the 2014 Sochi Games after losing to Matt Duchene and Team Canada in the gold medal game, 3-0.

Since there hasn’t been an opportunity for NHL players to compete in the Olympics since 2014, Landeskog is the only player to be named from the Avalanche who has Olympic experience.

Landedskog has amounted 29 points in eight international competitions so far, two of which were at the junior level. In Seniors, he has nine goals and 14 assists in 43 games.

Cale Makar – Canada

The two-time James Norris Memorial Trophy winner for the Avalanche will be on Team Canada’s roster for the second straight year after he also took part in the 4 Nations Face-Off this past May. He has only competed for Team Canada four times in his career, three at the junior level and one at the 4 Nations. Success has followed him in international play, as his Canada teams have won the gold in three of the four tournaments he’s played in. He has 18 points (8G, 10A) in the 18 international games he’s played in.

Makar will be one of the most valuable players on Canada’s roster alongside MacKinnon and Connor McDavid. The Canadians will likely be the favorite when the tournament gets underway in 2026, as their top six is filled with superstar talent that no other nation has.

Martin Necas – Czechia

Necas is the third Avalanche forward to be named to his respective international squad. This will be his 10th appearance for Czechia (formerly the Czech Republic), and fourth at the senior level after he also went to Europe last month to compete in the IIHF World Championships. His squad finished just behind MacKinnon and Team Canada after losing in the quarterfinals to Sweden.

Necas has won two gold medals for Czechia, one at the junior level in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in 2016, and one at the senior level in the 2024 IIHF Worlds.

A handful of former Avalanche players have also been names to various Olympic rosters, including Mikko Rantanen (Finland), Nico Sturm (Germany), Philipp Grubauer (Germany) and Lars Eller (Denmark). There will be plenty more Avalanche players that will compete in the Games, as the only players named so far are the top six on each squad.