Morning Flurries: Colorado represented well on preliminary Olympic rosters

Four Colorado Avalanche will be extra busy in February.

Milano Cortina 2026 is fast approaching as NHL players are gearing up to participate in the Olympics for the first time in over a decade. Leading up the the February festivities, each of the 12 nations expected to vie for gold in the men’s ice hockey tournament have just revealed six members of their roster and no surprise several Colorado Avalanche were named.

As expected, Canada will feature at least a duo of superstars from Colorado as both Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar were both named to Canada’s initial roster of six.

Martin Necas has been an important player for Czechia participating for his country in the latest World Championship tournament and he, too, will join the festivities.

The best surprise of all, though, was Avalanche Captain Gabe Landeskog on the roster for Sweden. After a long road to recovery Sweden bestowed Landeskog the opportunity to play for his country again.

The rest of the rosters will be named near the end of the year. There should be more Avalanche representation including Brock Nelson for USA, Devon Toews for Canada, Artturi Lehkonen for Finland and perhaps even Ivan Ivan for Czechia. A strong start to the 2025-26 NHL campaign would benefit everyone.

For MacKinnon, Makar, and Necas, this will be the first chance each player has had to represent his country at the Olympic level. Both MacKinnon and Makar got a taste of the action at the Four Nations Faceoff in January, with each putting together a strong showing as Canada won the tournament.

As for Landeskog, it will not be his first Olympic rodeo. He got to represent the Avs for Sweden at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, subsequentially the last time the NHL went to the winter games. His announcement as one of Sweden’s preliminary six is a massive accomplishment for the Avs captain following his long road to recovery from his knee injury, and adds another chapter into his improbable comeback story.

Due to the sanctions imposed on Russia by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) stemming from the 2017 doping scandal, as well as the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia will not be present at the 2026 Olympics. It’s a tough blow for the tournament on the ice, as Russia has plenty of talent to offer to be a serious medal contender. This of course means that Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin will not be going to Milan, but that we’ve also very likely seen the last of Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin at the Olympic level.

Several other former Avalanche players were named in yesterday’s initial release including Mikko Rantanen for Finland, Nico Sturm and Philipp Grubauer for Germany, Lars Eller for Denmark, Tomas Tatar for Slovakia and PE Bellemare for France.