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Neil Paine
The rosters are finally set, and the rink in Milan Cortina appears like it can — technically talking — be ready to host the event. The primary Olympic Video games with NHL gamers since Sochi in 2014 have almost arrived, and there can be a lot of star power readily available.
To assist kind out the most effective gamers taking the ice in Italy at varied aspects of the sport — as we did before last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off — we’re as soon as once more turning to the NHL’s EDGE tracking data and different superior metrics. Particularly, we needed to spotlight the Olympic-bound NHL gamers who’ve been the most effective over the previous season-and-a-half in 4 totally different measurable classes: Skating pace, shot energy, offensive creation (between capturing and passing) and goaltending (turning away each the more durable and the simpler pictures).
The Olympic event will deliver collectively a deeper subject of groups than the 4 Nations occasion did — 12 squads as an alternative of 4 — which implies much more contrasts in enjoying types and ability ranges. And whereas the most important names will inevitably draw the highlight (and principally dominate the information), we’ll even be highlighting less-heralded gamers in every class whose contributions are straightforward to overlook till you already know the place to look.
Listed below are the NHL’s Olympic gamers who stand out most within the metrics that outline trendy hockey dominance heading into Milano Cortina:
Notice: All stats and rankings are as of Jan. 9, 2026.
Metrics of selection: Prime pace and pace bursts (with further weight to larger MPH) per recreation at even power.
Click here to explore the full interactive chart.
Final yr on the 4 Nations Face-Off, McDavid merely ranked as co-fastest alongside Jack Hughes of Workforce USA. However whereas Hughes is again within the lineup for the People, his pace metrics are a bit down (from a max MPH of 23.3 to 22.5, with fewer super-fast bursts) this season, whereas McDavid has solely elevated his pace.
He is joined within the high tier of the burners by Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon and Brayden Point, Martin Necas of Czechia, Jack Eichel of the U.S., Finland’s Roope Hintz and Germany’s Tim Stutzle. Necas specifically has a highest gear that has rivaled McDavid’s previously, and all of those skaters can blow previous defenders with only a few strides.
Be careful for: As we have famous earlier than when discussing these pace stats, defensemen get fewer alternatives to indicate off their wheels than forwards, with some exceptions (cough, Cale Makar). So charts just like the one above find yourself with a couple of outliers of excessive top-speeds and relatively much less “burst.”
So relish the probabilities you get to see Quinn Hughes and Jaccob Slavin attain that 24-plus mph stage. And here is yet another blueliner whose pace we could not discuss fairly sufficient: Workforce USA’s Jake Sanderson, who had the next max mph than Hughes and extra high-speed bursts per 60 than some other defenseman on an Olympic roster.
Metrics of selection: Hardest shot pace and high-speed pictures (with further weight to larger mph) per recreation at even power.
Click here to explore the full interactive chart.
Final yr’s 4 Nations hardest-shot king, Victor Hedman of Sweden, has firm on the Olympics. That is as a result of Thompson was chosen to the American squad this time round, giving Workforce USA the most important blaster within the recreation at its disposal. At 6-foot-6, Thompson will get all of his body right into a shot that topped out at an excellent 106 mph final season, and though he hasn’t gone over 98 mph this season, he’s nonetheless the one participant at Milan Cortina who can deal with Hedman’s fee of super-hard pictures.
Whereas these two are in a league of their very own, the subsequent tier is led by Sweden’s Gustav Forsling by way of peak energy, and Swiss D-man Roman Josi in pure output of pictures per recreation that strike worry into opposing goalies’ hearts.
Be careful for: Thompson is a exceptional outlier towards this pattern, however EDGE shot-speed stats have the alternative tendency of skating pace: They favor defensemen, who fireplace off extra perimeter slappers than different shot varieties — which not solely boosts their common shot pace but in addition tends them to provide extra arduous pictures per recreation than forwards.
So when a winger like Sweden’s Adrian Kempe can put up greater than 1.5 pictures within the 80-90 mph vary per recreation this season, he is undoubtedly one to watch.
Finest offensive creator:
David Pastrnak, RW, Czechia
Metrics of selection: Objectives Created as a shooter (together with precise and anticipated targets) and passer per 60 minutes at 5-on-5.
Click here to explore the full interactive chart.
It is arduous to imagine anyone can register extra manufacturing than MacKinnon or McDavid, who give Workforce Canada an offensive tandem the likes of which can not have been seen since Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux on the 1987 Canada Cup.
However by way of creating targets for himself and others on a per-minute foundation, it is Czechia’s star, David Pastrnak, who has dominated greater than both Canadian icon. His playmaking is unparalleled amongst Olympians, with a league-best fee of 1.33 major assists per 60 minutes over the previous season and a half, whereas he additionally holds his personal within the targets (precise or anticipated) division with MacKinnon and McDavid — even when he is a notch beneath pure objective scorers like Thompson and Auston Matthews there.
In fact, the competitors continues to be fierce on the righ- hand aspect of that chart. Along with Canada’s lead duo, we additionally see Necas, Germany’s Leon Draisaitl, Canada’s seemingly ageless Sidney Crosby, Workforce USA’s Matthew Tkachuk and one other Canadian one-two punch — Brandon Hagel as a scorer and Mitch Marner as a setup man — sitting close to the highest spot.
Be careful for: Amid all of that blinding star energy, it is perhaps straightforward to lose observe of the youngest-ever Canadian NHL participant to make the Olympic staff — if it weren’t for the truth that Macklin Celebrini calls for consideration every time he steps on the ice.
Celebrini’s growth this season has been nothing wanting startling, and his efficiency is each dragging San Jose toward a playoff bid and earning him surprising MVP buzz in what could be historical past’s third-youngest Hart Trophy season if it occurs. As a part of that, he has charges of targets and assists created that sit squarely in the identical combine as these different names above, a ridiculous reality for a 19-year-old.
Metrics of selection: Objectives Saved Above Common (GSAA) per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 for high-danger and all different probabilities.
Click here to explore the full, interactive chart.
The ultimate instance of our slight changing-of-the-guard since final yr’s 4 Nations event is between the pipes, the place reigning league MVP Connor Hellebuyck of Workforce USA has been surpassed within the goals-saved division — on each high-danger and common probabilities — by younger Swedish netminder Wallstedt, who wasn’t even on his nation’s roster this time a yr in the past.
It has been Wallstedt who leads all NHL goaltenders in goals above replacement this season, minding the web for Minnesota, and his puck-stopping on high-danger pictures specifically is effectively past that of some other backstop on the Olympics. Hellebuyck’s multiyear numbers are nonetheless among the many finest, after all, sitting subsequent to Canada’s Darcy Kuemper and Logan Thompson and Swede Filip Gustavsson within the tier beneath Wallstedt.
Be careful for: Along with that group above, there is just one different goalie within the Olympic subject who has been above-average on each high-danger and common pictures towards over the previous season and alter: Flyers netminder Dan Vladar, representing Czechia at Milano Cortina. Vladar is just not the clear-cut starter for the Czechs, as Lukas Dostal and Karel Vejmelka each provide beginning expertise as effectively, however his may very well be an intriguing identify to observe if he does get the chance in Italy.
