We won’t be watching the actual hockey team the Philadelphia Flyers on the ice for more than two weeks but some of their players will be gleefully on our screens participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics. Defenseman Travis Sanheim for Canada, goaltender Dan Vladar for Czechia, and defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen for Finland, have already made their way across the Atlantic and are preparing for the men’s tournament to start Wednesday.
While there aren’t any first-line stars who will be getting all the headlines coming out of Milan, the Flyers’ trio of internationals will still be playing fairly important roles on their respective Olympic rosters.
Before the action gets going though, what’s some stuff we really should keep an eye on as we progress through the next couple of weeks when it comes to these Flyers playing overseas?
How many minutes will Travis Sanheim get for Team Canada?
A whole lot of the narrative surrounding Travis Sanheim last season was just how much of a workhorse he was. Playing almost half of the game from the blue line, the 6-foot-4 mobile defenseman was doing just about everything he could to control play through all 82 games. And he’s still doing that but getting a little less of the spotlight with other defensemen like partner Cam York and Jamie Drysdale really improving and removing some of that burden Sanheim had last year.
But maybe out of any defenseman on the roster, Sanheim could use a little bit of a rest. Almost three entire weeks to kick your feet up, train, and recover as we had into the final games of what has been a not-so-good season? That’s probably ideal for the guy that has barely missed any hockey since he’s debuted with the Flyers nine years ago.
But no, Sanheim will be once again — as he did last season during the 4 Nations Face-Off — be actually playing hockey during the mid-season break for an international tournament. Now, we’re just hoping that he can continue to stay healthy and not pick up a freak injury in Italy.
The 29-year-old’s role on Team Canada’s blue line isn’t going to be the same as his in Philadelphia, thankfully. Either on the bottom pair or even as a healthy scratch, Sanheim is more in a support role and could be just trying to outwork opponents and transition the puck up the ice alongside the likes of Drew Doughty or Colton Parayko. It eases the concern ever so slightly that he’s going to be playing fewer minutes, but all the practice time and still having to go through the game rituals as everyone else is not, makes us concerned just a little bit.
Dan Vladar might just save the crease for Czechia
There is a world that Dan Vladar has to play hero for the second time this season. As the main free-agent acquisition for the Flyers last summer, Vladar needed to be able to provide just some sort of league-average goaltending as the team tried to figure some other stuff out. Considering that the Flyers have not had that in some time, it would be like the most sweet and not-so-subtle breath of fresh air.
This performance cemented Vladar’s status on Team Czechia’s roster for the Olympics and he is now part of a three-headed trio of NHL netminders. Utah’s Karel Vejmelka and Anaheim’s Lukas Dostal round out the group and while those two have much more status surrounding them — the former being one of the hardest working netminders in the league, and the latter being crowned the Ducks’ crease almost automatically after putting up some solid numbers — Vladar could come out on top as the tournament progresses.
You don’t even have to look too far for that to become a possibility. Vladar has both a better save percentage and goals against average than his two Czech teammates for their respective NHL teams. The Flyers netminder has played fewer games, but just barely with 33 appearances compared to Dostal’s 38 and Vejmelka is notorious for how much he plays and it shows with his NHL-leading 44 appearances.
Even so, it might all just come out in the wash and whoever gives Czechia the best performances through the first few games might just take the ride through the knockout stage. So, why couldn’t that be Vladar? He might be the third of three to start the tournament but we’ve seen him take over games very recently and Czechia shouldn’t be tied too tightly to one of these netminders already.
Rasmus Ristolainen is going to get injured again, isn’t he?
Trying to just discuss Rasmus Ristolainen makes me scared that he might get injured because of it. There has been no man more fragile on the Flyers this season than the Finnish blueliner, but somehow he narrowly avoided more injuries right before the Olympic break to be able to get back and play some minutes for his country.
The only problem is that unlike Sanheim and Team Canada, Finland will be heavily relying on Ristolainen to play in a big role. Some projections even have him on the first defensive pairing alongside Dallas Stars star Miro Heiskanen before the tournament. This is a recipe for potential disaster.
While this season, he is not performing up to the standard he set when John Tortorella was in charge, Ristolainen still could play a vital role for the Flyers as they finish out the rest of their season. Whether that is on the ice and not completely falling apart to the slightest bit of pressure, or being a potential future trade asset.
We’ve already suffered through Ristolainen being too injured to be traded once before, and then last season the Flyers just wanted too much for their tall Finnish defenseman. But now? With just one season remaining on his contract, there should be a little bit more appetite for a deal before the March 6 trade deadline, but that is impossible if he is run ragged on the top pairing for the Olympics and comes back to Philadelphia held together by duct tape.
And even if Ristolainen isn’t moved by the deadline, him being able to go through an entire Olympic schedule and then play for the rest of the season is crucial for any offseason trade. No acquiring team would want to get a player they think can barely play for 40 games without having a lengthy absence. Let’s just hope that he can keep it together long enough for him to maybe even find some greener pastures elsewhere.