{"id":450318,"date":"2026-02-07T15:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T15:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/450318\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T15:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T15:07:16","slug":"what-russias-hockey-team-would-look-like-and-how-its-absence-affects-the-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/450318\/","title":{"rendered":"What Russia\u2019s hockey team would look like and how its absence affects the Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of USA vs. Finland<\/a> in the 2026 Winter Olympics women\u2019s hockey<\/a> preliminary round. <\/p>\n

The NHL is back in the Olympics after a 12-year hiatus, minus one notable, historical member.<\/p>\n

Russia has been banned<\/a> from international play since 2022 because of its invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s absence from the Olympic stage begs the question: What would a Russian Olympic hockey team look like if the country were allowed to participate in Milan?<\/p>\n

We reached out to the smartest mind in Russian hockey, the man known as \u201cThe Professor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hockey Hall of Famer Igor Larionov, head coach of SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL and famed member of the KLM line from the 1980s powerhouse Soviet national team, agreed in mid-January to create a Russian Olympic roster for The Athletic.<\/p>\n

The fact that this was a purely hypothetical exercise wasn\u2019t lost on Larionov, who doesn\u2019t have to actually sweat out his omissions the way USA GM Bill Guerin or Canada GM Doug Armstrong and Sweden head coach Sam Hallam have in real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can be relaxed,\u2019\u2019 Larionov said. \u201cI don\u2019t have to worry. I have no pressure to explain everything. Obviously, I could make some changes, but at this point, I would say this is at least 85 percent of how I would do it if I were really the coach.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Of note, there were no KHL players on the roster he sent us.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working in the KHL for four years now. I don\u2019t see anyone who could be close to the guys now playing in the NHL,\u2019\u2019 Larionov said. \u201cThat\u2019s my feeling. I don\u2019t worry about that. I\u2019m telling you what I see. The level of decision-making of the NHL guys is just great.\u201d<\/p>\n

What would Team Russia look like?Goalies<\/p>\n

There are four outstanding options but only three can make it. Larionov went with Sergei Bobrovsky, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin and left off Ilya Sorokin.<\/p>\n

Tough call.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s only one net,\u2019\u2019 Larionov said. \u201cYou want to choose the best who have the winning records and experience and have won the Stanley Cup. Bob won back-to-back Cups. Shesterkin obviously is a good choice and Vasilevskiy won two Cups for Tampa. Whatever the case, whatever happens, you have a great backup goalie, you know? It\u2019s a superstar. All three of them have won the Vezina.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Larionov relayed a funny story from a summer skate last July when Shesterkin showed up to take part in one but didn\u2019t play goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cShesterkin played with me on my wing,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cI said to him, \u2018What are you doing?\u2019 He said, \u2018It\u2019s July. In August, I put my goalie gear on.\u2019 I was setting him up and he was scoring.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Defensemen<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a blend of skill, size and experience in Larionov\u2019s eight selections. He would have had Alexander Romanov as part of it if not for his long-term recovery from shoulder surgery. He replaced Romanov with Artem Zub.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put the players who have the mind, the skill and defensive ability, very high IQ, and are team players,\u2019\u2019 Larionov said of his blue-line group.<\/p>\n

The smaller rink in Milan would be a welcoming place for the towering Nikita Zadorov. But it\u2019s his hockey IQ that\u2019s more alluring to Larionov here.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysicality is a big part of the game. But when you\u2019re going against the best, if you look back to the \u201987 Canada Cup, when you had the best against the best, you got to have skill, not just physicality,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cYou need the mind to take whatever it takes to play with talented players.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Skill trumps all in Larionov\u2019s hockey philosophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, offense is the most important, because the Russian way is to control the puck and to be unpredictable,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cDefensively, they have to be smart enough to stop breakouts and feed the forwards with the right timing and right passes. That\u2019s the key for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forwards<\/p>\n

Larionov loves the idea of putting Montreal Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov with the NHL\u2019s all-time goal-scoring leader, Alex Ovechkin, on the same line.<\/p>\n

On Demidov, Larionov sees a work ethic that\u2019s through the roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have him playing with Ovi on the same line; that would be special,\u201d Larionov said. \u201cYou blend experience and speed and skill and the mind on the same line.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Where Larionov had a tough time was at center. So he put a winger such as Artemi Panarin in the middle, trusting his hockey IQ to adjust.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was struggling to find the right people in the middle, my position,\u201d Larionov said. \u201cTo me, the mind is the key for success \u2026 it\u2019s a key position for any team. I kind of struggled with it when I put the lines together. That\u2019s why I put Breadman in the middle. We had an exhibition game in July in Moscow, NHL guys against KHL guys, charity game, and I told Panarin he had to play center, which was different for him. You got to use skill and mind to distribute the puck. You got to have right people on the flanks to execute his ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

He included 22-year-old Fedor Svechkov as part of his forward group. He really likes Nashville\u2019s first-round pick from the 2021 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had him on the junior team and I like the kid very much,\u2019\u2019 Larionov said. \u201cHe reminds me of a player he plays with now in Nashville, Ryan O\u2019Reilly. With the right mix of players, I think he could help the team. He\u2019s young and responsible.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Larionov also included a depth guy such as Ilya Mikheyev from the Blackhawks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a PK guy, he\u2019s got work ethic, I have a lot of respect for guys with that work ethic and determination,\u2019\u2019 Larionov said. \u201cHe\u2019s paid his dues. He would be a reliable guy on any line.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The end result? A team that would\u2019ve likely been the bronze medal favorite, just a shade ahead of Sweden within the same tier. That\u2019s based on Russia\u2019s usual sources of strength: dynamic offense and elite goaltending.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The Russians would\u2019ve had the best chance of upsetting Canada or the United States in any given match and would\u2019ve had a 44.7 percent chance of medaling \u2014 and a 12.2 percent chance at gold.<\/p>\n

How would Russia\u2019s presence affect the tournament?<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s inclusion would\u2019ve left France out of the tournament and created interesting groups for the preliminary round. Sweden would join Canada in Group A, while Russia would join the U.S. in Group C, creating significantly more friction in both. Group B, with arguably the fifth-, sixth-, and eighth-best teams, would also offer some intrigue.<\/p>\n

Group A
Canada
Sweden
Switzerland
Italy<\/p>\n

Group B
Finland
Germany
Czech Republic
Denmark<\/p>\n

Group C
Russia
USA
Slovakia
Latvia<\/p>\n

The current groups offer a lot less suspense in comparison, with Canada winning its group 73 percent of the time and USA winning 84 percent of the time. With Russia in the tournament, those odds would\u2019ve dropped to 66 and 64 percent, respectively.<\/p>\n

The added uncertainty in the group stage would\u2019ve also set the stage for more tension before the semifinal, where both Canada and USA would\u2019ve had a 23 percent chance of being eliminated early compared to their current 16 to 18 percent. The chance of a quarterfinal meeting between the two strongest nations is one reason for that, as those odds would nearly double from 4.5 percent to 8.3 percent with Russia. That also takes away from the chance of the two meeting in the gold-medal game (down 6.6 percentage points) and increases the odds of the two nations not meeting at all (up 5.3 percentage points).<\/p>\n

The big change, though, would be reduced medal odds all around. Canada and the U.S. would be hit hardest in goal-medal odds (roughly down four percentage points), but the biggest loss would\u2019ve been Sweden\u2019s chances of medaling, which would\u2019ve taken a 13 percentage point hit.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Without Russia challenging the top of the food chain, the NHL\u2019s return to the Olympics is going to be an easier tournament all around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of USA vs. Finland in the 2026 Winter Olympics women\u2019s hockey preliminary round.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,54125,4,2602],"class_list":{"0":"post-450318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116029978669457749","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450318","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=450318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}