{"id":421837,"date":"2026-01-22T15:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T15:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/421837\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T15:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T15:44:22","slug":"jackson-lacombe-named-to-u-s-olympic-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/421837\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackson LaCombe Named To U.S Olympic Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

USA Hockey announced<\/a> a change to its roster for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. Per their official release, Florida Panthers defenseman Seth Jones<\/a> has been removed from the roster due to being \u201cinjured and unable to participate,\u201d and in his place, Anaheim Ducks blueliner Jackson LaCombe<\/a> has been named to the roster.<\/p>\n

Jones suffered an injury early this month and was originally considered week-to-week<\/a>. At the time, his status for the Olympics had only been downgraded to questionable \u2014 he had not been ruled out. The Panthers shifted Jones to LTIR on Monday, indicating that he would not be ready to go in time for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tough blow for Jones, who was undoubtedly looking forward to the chance to represent his country on such a big stage. The defenseman, who won the Stanley Cup with the Panthers last year, has represented the United States at several IIHF Men\u2019s World Championships, including captaining the team in 2022.<\/p>\n

While this news is undoubtedly a severe disappointment for Jones, it\u2019s also a massive opportunity for LaCombe. The Minnesota native helped the United States win a gold medal at last year\u2019s IIHF Men\u2019s World Championship, serving as one of that team\u2019s top defensemen.<\/p>\n

The 2019 second-round pick has emerged as a true No. 1 defenseman in the NHL, averaging 24:26 time on ice per game this season, including a heavy workload on both sides of special teams. He scored 43 points in 75 games last season and has 31 points in 49 games this year. The Ducks rewarded his NHL breakout in October, signing him to an eight-year, $9MM AAV deal.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s notable about LaCombe\u2019s addition, when it comes to Team USA as a whole, is his status as a left-shot defenseman. His addition to Team USA, alongside the loss of Jones, leaves the Americans with just two right-shot blueliners (Brock Faber<\/a> and Charlie McAvoy<\/a>). Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox<\/a> is widely considered the top right-shot defenseman not on the American roster, but he\u2019s currently on LTIR, which is likely to have impacted his chances of selection as an injury replacement.<\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens star Lane Hutson<\/a> may also have been considered, as he has been one of the NHL\u2019s most valuable defensemen since entering the league. While he does have some experience playing the right side at the NHL level, which may have helped his case, GM Bill Guerin<\/a> may have been wary about adding another undersized defenseman to a roster that already includes superstar Quinn Hughes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In any case, LaCombe is an extremely well-rounded defenseman capable of contributing in all situations, and was likely very close to making the roster outright in the first place. The Athletic\u2019s Pierre LeBrun indicated as much<\/a>, writing \u201cLaCombe had been seriously considered by Team USA to begin with.\u201d Now, due to an injury, he gets his chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"USA Hockey announced a change to its roster for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. Per their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[233,57,5,1709,2602,259],"class_list":{"0":"post-421837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-jackson-lacombe","12":"tag-olympics","13":"tag-seth-jones"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115939525576176180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421837","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=421837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}