{"id":386780,"date":"2026-01-02T16:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T16:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/386780\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T16:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T16:21:15","slug":"jets-hellebuyck-connor-among-19-named-to-team-usas-2026-olympic-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/386780\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets\u2019 Hellebuyck, Connor among 19 named to Team USA\u2019s 2026 Olympic roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winnipeg Jets<\/a> stars Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> and Kyle Connor<\/a> were among the 19 players named to the United States\u2019 25-player men\u2019s roster for the 2026 Olympics on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

Buffalo Sabres<\/a> centre Tage Thompson<\/a>, Utah Mammoth<\/a> captain Clayton Keller<\/a> and Florida Panthers<\/a> defenceman Seth Jones<\/a> are among the fresh faces added to the team compared to the 4 Nations Face-Off roster, while Adam Fox<\/a> of the New York Rangers<\/a> and Anaheim Ducks<\/a> forward Chris Kreider<\/a> are not returning. <\/p>\n

The roster features two players with Olympic experience in Ottawa Senators<\/a> defenceman Jake Sanderson<\/a> and Brock Faber<\/a> of the Minnesota Wild<\/a>, who both competed for Team USA at Beijing 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The full roster is as follows:<\/p>\n

Forwards: Brady Tkachuk<\/a>, Jack Eichel<\/a>, Matthew Tkachuk<\/a>, Jake Guentzel<\/a>, Auston Matthews<\/a>, Matt Boldy<\/a>, Kyle Connor<\/a>, Jack Hughes<\/a>, Tage Thompson<\/a>, J.T. Miller<\/a>, Dylan Larkin<\/a>, Brock Nelson<\/a>, Vincent Trocheck<\/a>, Clayton Keller<\/a><\/p>\n

Defence: Quinn Hughes<\/a>, Charlie McAvoy<\/a>, Jaccob Slavin<\/a>, Brock Faber<\/a>, Zach Werenski<\/a>, Seth Jones<\/a>, Jake Sanderson<\/a>, Noah Hanifin<\/a><\/p>\n

Goaltenders: Connor Hellebuyck<\/a>, Jake Oettinger<\/a>, Jeremy Swayman<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited about our team and congratulate everyone named today,\u201d general manager Bill Guerin<\/a> said. \u201cIt was incredibly difficult for our management group to get to the final roster and that\u2019s a credit to so many in our country, including all those at the grassroots level who help make our sport so strong. There\u2019s nothing like the Olympics and I know our players and staff will represent our country well and work hard to achieve our ultimate goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the notable omissions, Dallas Stars<\/a> forward Jason Robertson<\/a>, Montreal Canadiens<\/a> standouts Cole Caufield<\/a> and Lane Hutson<\/a>, and Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> winger Matthew Knies<\/a> all missed out again after not being selected to the 4 Nations team last winter. <\/p>\n

Team USA had previously named forwards Jack Eichel<\/a>, Auston Matthews<\/a>, Brady Tkachuk<\/a> and Matthew Tkachuk<\/a>, along with defencemen Quinn Hughes<\/a> and Charlie McAvoy<\/a> to its roster as their first six in the summer. Hughes missed the 4 Nations Face-Off due to injury, while McAvoy was injured in the second game of the tournament. <\/p>\n

Hellebuyck joins a repeat of the goaltender group from the 4 Nations, teaming with Dallas Stars<\/a> netminder Jake Oettinger<\/a> and Jeremy Swayman<\/a> of the Boston Bruins<\/a>. <\/p>\n

After falling to Canada in overtime in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago, Guerin has set a clear expectation for this year\u2019s Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to win,\u201d Guerin told NHL.com in the summer. \u201cWe have to win another one of these. It\u2019s been since 1996. We just have to find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerin was a forward on the 1996 World Cup of Hockey team that last claimed gold for Team USA at a best-on-best tournament. The United States has silver medals from Vancouver 2010 and Salt Lake City 2002, in addition to the 4 Nations, falling to Canada in the final of each of those events.<\/p>\n

The United States did break through for a gold medal the IIHF world hockey championship in May, their first win at the tournament in 92 years. It was Thompson who scored the overtime winner in the final, while Keller was team captain for the tournament. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest with you, I didn\u2019t know if I was going to be on the team or not,\u201d Thompson told the Sabres team website. \u201cA lot of good American-born players. You never know, right? So, a little nerve-wracking answering the phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard him say I was on the team, just kind of a big sigh of relief, excitement, a bunch of different emotions going through you at the same time. Really cool. It\u2019s a goal I\u2019ve worked towards for a very long time and dreamt of as a kid. For it to be coming true now is pretty special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team USA will play Latvia in their Olympic opener Feb. 12 followed by Denmark and Germany on Feb. 14 and 15, respectively in Group C. All 12 teams will be ranked after the preliminary round with the group winners and the second-place team with the best record qualifying for the quarter-finals directly and the other eight teams playing a qualification round to advance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Jets stars Connor Hellebuyck and Kyle Connor were among the 19 players named to the United States\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,49426,32468,5,33449,4,34393],"class_list":{"0":"post-386780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-clayton-keller-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8479343","10":"tag-connor-hellebuyck-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8476945","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-kyle-connor-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8478398","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-tage-thompson-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8479420"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}