The 2026 Olympic men\u2019s hockey tournament is here. The best players from 12 countries are gathered in Milan to crown a world champion. Four Winnipeg Jets will be among them, including 3 Olympic debutants. Each Jet will play a key role for their national team and while speculation has been going on for months about who will medal, let\u2019s take a look at questions surrounding how the Jets will perform or be used by their head coaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How many minutes will Josh Morrissey get?<\/p>\n
According to early practice reports, Morrissey is looking to be on the second pair for head coach Jon Cooper. While he would be a first pair defenceman for many National Hockey League teams, it\u2019s not surprising with the likes of Cale Makar and Devon Toews being a lock for the top pairing. What\u2019s more interesting is the situations Morrissey will be used in. A regular on the top power play unit in Winnipeg, he hasn\u2019t been on the man advantage units through team Canada\u2019s Olympic practices so far. With the speed in the Canadian lineup it\u2019s likely they\u2019ll have a lot of time on the power play through the tournament so missing out on some special teams action will hurt Morrissey\u2019s overall ice time. An offensive weapon for the Jets, he is currently getting north of 24 minutes per game in the NHL. Morrissey will not be short on offensive options to complement his speed and creativity in the attacking zone with forwards like Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby as passing opportunities. How will Jon Cooper use the Calgary native?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can Connor Hellebuyck find his Vezina form?<\/p>\n
The reigning Hart and Vezina Trophy winner hails from Commerce, Michigan. The standout goaltender put up incredible numbers last year, posting career highs in wins (47), goals against average (2.00), and save percentage (.925). This season has been a different story so far. “Helle” is regressing to some degree with 5-year lows in goals against average (2.79) and save percentage (.900). The Americans have arguably the best defence corps in the tournament, but they are going to need their goaltending to be strong and consistent if they\u2019re going to compete for gold. Hellebuyck will have competition from Dallas\u2019 Jake Oettinger and Boston\u2019s Jeremy Swayman. It\u2019s likely head coach Mike Sullivan gives him at least one game off to see how the others perform but all signs point to Helle being the guy for team USA. Hellebuyck is a fiery competitor, but will he regain his MVP form from last year or continue the return to the mean that we\u2019ve seen this season?<\/p>\n
What role will Kyle Connor get from Mike Sullivan?<\/p>\n
Through team USA\u2019s initial practices Kyle Connor has been taking line rushes with Dylan Larkin and Tage Thompson on the third line. None of those three are accustomed to playing third line in the National Hockey League. While the Olympics will certainly bring a different style of hockey, Connor is best used as a sniper and in transition play as opposed to a defensive zone specialist. Mike Sullivan famously scratched him in the 4 Nations final last season, and the US could only muster 2 goals in the loss to Canada.<\/a> If Connor catches fire there may be some opportunity to move back up into the top 6 and get more ice time in Milan, but he\u2019s got an uphill battle given what opinions Sullivan seems to have formed about the Shelby Township, Michigan native. Can he beat his performance from the 4 Nations this month and earn a bigger opportunity?<\/p>\n Where will Nino Niederreiter land in team scoring?<\/p>\n Team Switzerland\u2019s flag bearer has had a storied career in his national team uniform. Niederreiter is playing in his second Olympic Games after competing in Sochi in 2014. He is projected to earn a top 6 role for head coach Patrick Fischer. Teammates Nico Hischier and Kevin Fiala are expected to be among the top point-getters but if Switzerland has eyes on making it to the medal rounds they\u2019ll need a big tournament from Niederreiter. The NHL veteran who just surpassed 1,000 games played is no stranger to the spotlight and he\u2019ll be eager to put up numbers in what could be his final Olympic games. Can he make enough of an impact to carry Switzerland deep into the tournament?<\/p>\n We\u2019ll have you covered on these questions and how the Jets do over the next two weeks at Jets White Out.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Olympic men\u2019s hockey tournament is here. The best players from 12 countries are gathered in Milan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5121],"tags":[5,78,4,77,18,5288],"class_list":{"0":"post-456590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-winnipeg-jets","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-winnipeg","12":"tag-winnipeg-jets","13":"tag-winnipegjets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116062208811868366","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456590","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=456590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}