{"id":453349,"date":"2026-02-10T16:01:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/453349\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:01:24","slug":"a-san-jose-sharks-fans-guide-to-the-2026-winter-olympics-the-hockey-writers-san-jose-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/453349\/","title":{"rendered":"A San Jose Sharks Fan\u2019s Guide to the 2026 Winter Olympics – The Hockey Writers – San Jose Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year, the NHL returns to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014. As such, the world\u2019s best players will get a chance to compete, including four members of the San Jose Sharks<\/a>. Let\u2019s take a look at San Jose\u2019s representatives at the tournament, all of whom are forwards.<\/p>\n

Macklin Celebrini, Canada<\/p>\n

In his sophomore campaign, Macklin Celebrini<\/a> is having one of the best seasons ever for a teenager. His 81 points are fourth in the NHL and lead the Sharks by a huge margin. He is by far their most important player<\/a> and has completely turned their fortunes around, taking the Sharks from the league\u2019s worst team to a fringe playoff contender.<\/p>\n

\"MacklinSan Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini celebrates his goal against the Vancouver Canucks (Bob Frid-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Celebrini worked his way up through the Canadian national system, having represented his country at the U17, U18, World Juniors and World Championships. He posted 31 points across 24 games in those tournaments. Although he started this season as a borderline candidate for Canada\u2019s Olympic roster, his strong play throughout the season made him a no-brainer addition. While he\u2019s naturally a center, he has been practicing on the wing due to how many elite centers Canada has, giving him a chance to show his versatility for a team that has won gold medals at each of the last two Olympics where NHL players have suited up.<\/p>\n

Philipp Kurashev, Switzerland<\/p>\n

After joining the Sharks this offseason as something of a reclamation project, Philipp Kurashev<\/a> proved his impact on offense. Even though he\u2019s been limited to 34 games due to injury, his 17 points already top last season\u2019s 14. After what was obviously a down year with the Chicago Blackhawks, he\u2019s revitalized his career<\/a> as a member of the Sharks and got healthy in time to return for the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Related: Guide to the 2026 Winter Olympics Men\u2019s Hockey Tournament<\/a><\/p>\n

Kurashev has extensive experience with the Swiss national team, appearing in nine different international tournaments, including four World Championships. During his most recent such competition in 2024, he had two assists in eight games as Switzerland won the silver medal. Now he\u2019ll play for them at the Olympics for the first time while charging back up for the final stretch of the NHL season as well.<\/p>\n

Pavol Regenda, Slovakia<\/p>\n

In a limited sample size, Pavol Regenda is having a career year in his first season with the Sharks. He unexpectedly scored six goals in his first five games, including his first career NHL hat trick. He now has eight goals in 16 games, helping to place him sixth in points per game among rookie-eligible skaters with at least 15 games played. Whether this is at all sustainable remains to be seen, but he\u2019s clearly benefited from his time with the Sharks in terms of both the ice time he receives and the linemates he gets to play alongside, and his strong play has helped him earn his Olympic roster spot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unlike his fellow Sharks Olympians, Regenda had to play in the qualifying round, scoring two goals in three games to get Slovakia to the main tournament in the first place. He\u2019s also the only Sharks Olympian to have previously played in the Olympics. Prior to his NHL career, when he was still playing in his home country, he posted one goal and three assists in seven games to help Slovakia earn a bronze medal. He will be an underdog at the Olympics this time around, but he\u2019s clearly thrived in that role.<\/p>\n

Alexander Wennberg, Sweden<\/p>\n

Alexander Wennberg<\/a> has established himself as one of the Sharks\u2019 most important veterans in his second season with the franchise. His steady, mistake-avoidant style of play is a crucial piece of such a young team, and he\u2019s already surpassed last season\u2019s point total in 22 fewer games. He also recently committed to the Sharks\u2019 next era by signing a three-year extension<\/a>, symbolizing how the organization is ready to move out of their rebuild.<\/p>\n

Appearing in his first Olympics, Wennberg has won three silver medals with Swedish youth teams and appeared in three World Championships. After six years away from international competition, he returned at the 2025 Worlds, registering one goal and three assists in 10 games to help Sweden earn bronze. He\u2019ll look to continue that success this year, but the Olympics are a different kind of tournament.<\/p>\n

Sharks Get New Chance at International Representation<\/p>\n

The last time the entire hockey world turned their attention to an international tournament was at last year\u2019s 4 Nations Face-Off, where the Sharks didn\u2019t have any players. While being able to take a break has benefits, playing at the Olympics carries positives as well. Celebrini, Kurashev, Regenda and Wennberg get to stay in game shape and earn the pride of representing their countries on a worldwide stage while hopefully giving the Sharks some newfound positive attention at the same time. <\/p>\n

Even better for the Sharks, those players could use the Olympics as a way to generate positive momentum for what has turned into an improbable playoff push. Ultimately, it\u2019s a good confluence of factors for both the players as individuals and the Sharks as a team.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year, the NHL returns to the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014. As such, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[3189,1698,5,501,4,1265,4525,519,168,5306,5305,1780],"class_list":{"0":"post-453349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","9":"tag-alexander-wennberg","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-macklin-celebrini","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-pavol-regenda","14":"tag-philipp-kurashev","15":"tag-san-jose","16":"tag-san-jose-sharks","17":"tag-sanjose","18":"tag-sanjosesharks","19":"tag-sharks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116047177040353407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453349","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=453349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}