Snapshots: Maurice, Morrissey, Davies
Finland wound up in second place in its group at the Olympics and have a chance at a bye before the quarterfinals. However, at one point, it looked like the team could have been led by a different bench boss. Helsingen Sanomat’s Sami Hoffren and Teemu Suvinen report that following a tough showing at the 4 Nations Face-Off and World Championship, a group of NHL veterans made an effort to try to get Panthers head coach Paul Maurice appointed to Finland’s coaching staff for these Olympics. GM Jere Lehtinen acknowledged discussing the idea with the players who wanted the change but nothing further came of it with head coach Antti Pennanen remaining in charge, a role he will hold through the spring of 2027 at a minimum.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey missed Friday’s Olympic game against Switzerland and has already been ruled out for Sunday’s contest against France, relays Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press (Twitter link). However, Canada’s head coach Jon Cooper indicated that “by no means is he out for the tournament.” That suggests that the undisclosed injury is at least relatively minor if he’s going to potentially be back within the next week. That would be a big boost for Canada’s back end as well as Winnipeg’s with a busy stretch of games coming up after the break.
- After having his contract with Florida terminated a little more than a week ago, Josh Davies has found a new team. The AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals announced that they’ve signed the forward to a deal for the remainder of the season. Drafted in the sixth round in 2022, Davies has played primarily in the ECHL over his professional career and it appears he was willing to walk away from the rest of his NHL deal to get an opportunity to play at the AHL level for the first time this season.
Atlantic Notes: Nylander, Levi, Bergqvist
While Maple Leafs winger William Nylander was able to get back in Toronto’s lineup before the Olympics, he hasn’t been practicing fully with Sweden at the Olympics. That has led to speculation that the lingering groin issue he has been dealing with is still bothering him. As Michael Traikos of The Hockey News relays, the veteran winger indicated that while he’s managing the injury, he’s feeling good at the moment. Nylander has a goal and an assist in three games so far with the Swedes wrapping up preliminary round action earlier today. That has to be encouraging for Toronto as they’ll need him at his best if they’re going to have any shot at trying to close the gap in the Atlantic Division to get back into the playoff picture.
More from the Atlantic:
- Sabres goalie Devon Levi acknowledged to Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald that he no longer feels rushed anymore when it comes to his development. Buffalo put him straight into a late-season playoff chase in 2022 but since then, he has struggled at the NHL level. This season, the team had him take a step back as he has played exclusively with AHL Rochester and has done well, posting a 2.57 GAA with a .910 SV% in 32 appearances. Even with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen currently injured, Buffalo will need to have another netminder go down with an injury before Levi becomes a viable option to be recalled this season.
- Canadiens prospect Rasmus Bergqvist has been loaned from the SHL to Ostersunds of the second-tier Allsvenskan, per a team announcement from SHL Skelleftea. The 20-year-old has been a regular with Skelleftea this season while picking up four assists in 37 games, albeit with diminishing ice time. The hope is that the drop to the lower level will allow Bergqvist to play a bigger role while maintaining eligibility to be recalled later in the season or into the playoffs.
Josh Morrissey Leaves Canada’s Group Stage Win Over Czechia
Team Canada has had a few years of crushing defeats to the Czechs at the junior level. The senior team responded today with a 5-0 drubbing in its Group A opener at the 2026 Winter Olympics, but lost star Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey in the process.
Morrissey left at the first intermission with an undisclosed and unapparent issue. He tried to return later in the game but “couldn’t,” head coach Jon Cooper said, although it’s unclear whether that was Morrissey’s own decision or the medical staff’s (via Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman).
Olympic injuries are precarious for multiple reasons. With only a handful of games left until the trade deadline on the other end of the break and only a quarter and change of the schedule remaining for most teams, a multi-week absence for a key player – especially for a bubble team like the Jets – is incredibly difficult to work around. They’re also pressing for the national team if they pile up quickly early in the tournament. Unlike at the World Championships or other IIHF events, teams cannot name injury replacements to their roster after playing their first game. If Morrissey is out the rest of the way, Canada will only have seven defensemen available.
Morrissey, 30, has erupted into a bona fide top-10 defender in the league in his prime. He’s finished no worse than seventh in Norris Trophy voting in every year since 2023 and, at the time of the break, was amid another standout offensive campaign. His 10 goals and 42 points in 56 games have him 12th in league scoring among defenders and fourth overall on the Jets. He’s also tied with defensive partner Dylan DeMelo for a team-high +10 rating on a Jets team with a -15 goal differential this season.
Behind Morrissey, the Jets’ left-side defense is thin. They’ve enjoyed something of a breakout performance from third-pairing fixture Logan Stanley but trusting him enough to elevate into top-four minutes with any consistency is unwise given his spotty record of possession play. Shutdown dynamo Dylan Samberg remains a strong second-pairing option but, with only nine assists in 40 games on the year, can’t do much of anything to replace Morrissey’s lost point production if he misses time on the other side of the break.
Poll: Which Team Will Win The Gold Medal At The Olympics?
The long wait is over. For the first time since 2014, NHL players will represent their respective countries at the Olympic Games.
In the last two meetings with NHL representatives, Team Canada has been dominant. They beat Team USA in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics on the back of an overtime winner by Sidney Crosby. During the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Canada shutout Team Sweden in the Gold Medal game. Team Finland won the Bronze Medal in both of those years.
There will be a group of 12 countries in this year’s tournament, represented by Canada, Czechia, Switzerland, and France in Group A, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, and Italy in Group B, and the United States, Germany, Latvia, and Denmark in Group C. The action formally kicks off on Wednesday, February 11th, and will conclude with the Gold Medal contest on Sunday, February 22nd.
Barring injuries, Canada understandably remains the favorite to win. Still, the United States is a much closer second thanin years past, followed by Sweden, Finland, and Czechia. The rosters for Canada, USA, Finland, and Sweden are similar to last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, whereas the other high-performing countries will have much different iterations.
Regardless of outcome in the Round Robin, every nation will earn a tournament bid, seeded one through 12. The top four teams will earn an automatic bye into the quarterfinals, and the remaining eight teams will battle in a ‘playoff round’.
Unfortunately, since they are in different groups, there are no guarantees of a border matchup between Canada and the United States. Nonetheless, there will still be notable matchups in the round between Finland and Sweden, Canada and Czechia, and the United States and Germany.
Now the crystal ball passes to you — in a few weeks, which team will be donning the gold medal around their necks?
Which Team Will Win The Gold Medal At The Olympics?
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Switzerland Hoping To Climb International Ladder At Olympics
Next week, NHL players will take the ice at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 2014. As much has changed in the 12 years since, the medal odds have remained the same. This year’s tournament is expected to be – above all else – a showdown between Team Canada and Team USA rosters stocked to the brim with NHL stars of past and present. Sweden and Finland fall in naturally behind the North American countries, rounding out the usual four-headed fight to leave with a medal. But thanks to some injuries to the top dogs, one underdog seems to stand out from the rest of the pack.
No – it’s not Czechia, which won the 2024 World Championship on the backs of the same players who will anchor their Olympic roster. Lukas Dostal, David Pastrnak, Martin Necas, and Tomas Hertl will pose major threats on Olympic ice – but injuries to Pavel Zacha and Filip Chytil may have irreparably damaged their depth chart. Instead, this year’s underdogs could be the Swiss, who have honed a roster of veterans into the perfect mix of reliability and explosivity.
Switzerland is led by one-time Norris Trophy winner Roman Josi, who continues to bring a dominant impact to both ends of the ice, even after losing 29 games of last season to injury. Josi poise, control, and perspective needed to lead a surging lineup. In speaking about Switzerland’s approach with NHL.com’s Dan Rosen, Josi said:
We know the teams that are coming here, the players that are here, but I think we can have a lot of confidence in our game. Obviously, this is a different beast than World Championships, but we’ve played some really good World Championship tournaments and got some momentum.
Josi added that this is the first time that Switzerland’s stars have had a chance to play at full strength. This is only the second time in the last five years that Switzerland has had each of Roman Josi, Nico Hischier, Kevin Fiala, and budding top-defender J.J. Moser on an international lineup. The other instance was at the 2024 World Championship, where the Swiss went on a mad dash to the Gold medal game, only to lose to the aforementioned Czechia. While Josi didn’t return for the 2025 tournament, Switzerland still managed to repeat as Silver medalists, this time losing to Team USA in their first World Championship win of the 2000s.
Back-to-back silver medal wins brought Switzerland up to four second-place finishes across the last 13 years. Before then, the Swiss hadn’t medaled in 14 years, not since their trifecta of medals won between 1994 and 1997.
Now, Switzerland faces the ultimate test. They have never medaled at an Olympic game with NHL talent – but this year offer an interesting mix of talent. Josi and Hischier offer stalwart reliability at both positions, capable as both playmakers and defenders. They’re complimented by Kevin Fiala, an electric scorer who seems to bring a bit extra to international competition. Fiala has led Switzerland’s last three World Championship rosters in points-per-game scoring and should continue to pop next to stars.
More than their top-end, Switzerland is bringing the fifth-most NHL talent in the tournament – the most outside the typical big-four. That standing has been propped up by injuries to other clubs but Switzerland’s flanks bring a lot of heft. Moser looks capable of standing up to the ever-important #2 role, while Jonas Siegenthaler‘s upside as a shutdown defender should hedge the team’s second pair. They’ll get similar support from Timo Meier and Nino Niederreiter on offense. Meier has 28 points in 52 NHL games and Niederreiter has 19 points in 55 games, down years for both players though they’ve also shown some extra spark in past international games.
The Nati will be rounded out with some shreds of upside. Philipp Kurashev was having a career-year before running into injury at the end of 2025. He has totaled 17 points and a plus-three in 34 games – notably his first NHL season with a positive plus-minus. Former Colorado Avalanche winger Sven Andrighetto has stepped up as a star scorer in Switzerland’s top pro league in his post-NHL days. He is one of five players scoring at a point-per-game pace in that league, with 35 points in as many games. Also on that list is former Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs forward Denis Malgin, who has 41 points in 41 games. That duo will stand as potential X-factors who can score important goals ,even if their point totals don’t pop.
These strengths are built on what is, still, a lineup far away from the strength of the top-four. Switzerland is rolling out Akira Schmid as their starting goaltender. He has played a career-high 29 NHL games this season and has 16 wins and a .895 save percentage to show for it – stout marks behind a strong Vegas Golden Knights club. But goaltending will still be Switzerland’s biggest weaknesses, not supported by a similarly shaky defense behind their three NHL talents.
Sweden is missing Lucas Carlsson and Jonas Brodin, two hard-hitters who would have filled important roles this tournament. Finland is missing star center Aleksander Barkov. Could those absences leave enough room for Switzerland to push into medal contention? If they bring the might they’ve shown at the World Championships, it could be. Even if the Swiss don’t medal, a standout tournament could put them at the level of, or even above, fellow up-and-comers like Czechia and Slovakia.
Golden Knights’ Jonas Rondbjerg Ruled Out Of Olympics
2/8: Denmark has announced their replacement following Rondbjerg’s injury. They’ve added left-defenseman Malte Setkov, bringing the roster to a conventional 14 forwards and seven defenders after Denmark originally rostered 15 forwards. Setkov has spent the last four seasons in Denmark’s top league. He has 13 goals and 30 points in 39 games this season, a career-high scoring pace.
2/6: Team Denmark will enter the 2026 Winter Olympics without one of their five NHL forwards. Vegas Golden Knights winger Jonas Rondbjerg has been ruled out due to a lower-body injury sustained during Vegas’ Sunday loss to the Anaheim Ducks, Denmark general manager Morten Green told local news channel TV 2 Sport.
Rondbjerg was placed on Vegas’ injured reserve on Monday. He missed the Golden Knights’ last two games before the Winter Olympics break, replaced by rookie forward Kai Uchacz.
Now, Rondbjerg will lose his first chance to represent Denmark at the Olympic Games. He joined the country at the Olympic Game Qualifiers in 2025 and scored one goal in three games. That chip, and his physical presence, helped lift Denmark to the top of Group F.
Rondbjerg was one of only seven NHL players on Denmarks 2026 Olympics roster. His peers include the Hurricanes’ Nikolaj Ehlers, Lightning’s Oliver Bjorkstrand, Senators’ Lars Eller, and Kraken’s Oscar Fisker Molgaard on offense.
That bunch will make up the bulk of Denmark’s top lines, while Rondbjerg was set for a pillaring role in the team’s bottom-six. The 6-foot-2 forward has split the season between the NHL and AHL, netting one point in four games with Vegas and 23 points in 36 games with the Henderson Silver Knights. He offers a reserved, physical presence that could have boosted Denmark’s odds against physical teams like Finland and USA.
Who Denmark will choose to replace Rondbjerg will be an interesting question to answer. Winger Felix Maegaard Scheel, 33, joined Denmark’s national team for three games earlier this season. He has served an extra forward role at the last four World Championships and currently has 11 points in 29 games in Germany’s DEL. Denmark could also opt for Viktors Čubars, who leads the country’s top league in scoring with 57 points in 40 games. Other local options could include Patrick Bjorkstrand or Oliver True, Ehlers’ cousin.
Or, if Denmark wants to maintain their NHL connection, they could opt for former Chicago Blackhawks draft pick (2016 fifth-round) Mathias From, who has 53 points in 42 games in Austria’s IceHL.
Morning Notes: Crosby, Cossa, Carfagna
In a move that should not come as a surprise to anyone, Hockey Canada has named legendary forward Sidney Crosby its captain for the upcoming men’s hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. Team Canada’s leadership group is rounded out by Connor McDavid and Cale Makar, who will each wear an “A” on their jersey for the tournament.
This is not Crosby’s first time captaining the Canadian national team. He captained the team at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, leading Canada to a gold medal. He also wore the “C” at the 2015 IIHF Men’s World Championship, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, last year’s 4-Nations Face-Off and last year’s World Championship. He’s widely considered to be among the greatest players in Canadian history, and owns one of the country’s most iconic hockey moments – his “Golden Goal” at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Now 38 years old, it’s entirely possible this is Crosby’s final Olympic tournament, and while McDavid is his obvious successor as captain, Crosby will at least get one more run to try to lead Canada to another gold medal.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- 23-year-old Sebastian Cossa, who was the No. 15 pick of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Detroit Red Wings, is making a real push for consideration for an NHL roster spot, writes Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen. Cossa has gone 20-4-2 with a .928 save percentage on a juggernaut Grand Rapids team, the best season of his young pro career. While offseason acquisition John Gibson has been solid as Detroit’s starter (22-12-2, .904 save percentage), the grip of veteran backup Cam Talbot on an NHL roster spot is likely less firm. In 24 games this season, Talbot, who is 38 years old, has an .892 save percentage, which ranks inside the bottom-15 in the league among netminders with at least 20 games played.
- Another young player making a push for consideration to land on his team’s NHL roster is Edmonton Oilers prospect defenseman Damien Carfagna. The 23-year-old undrafted blueliner is playing his first campaign as a professional, and has scored 13 points in 40 AHL games for the Bakersfield Condors. The Athletic’s Allan Mitchell wrote that Carfagna “appears close to NHL ready” and could see a call-up to Edmonton thanks in large part to his skating, which Mitchell called “exceptional at the AHL level.”
Pavel Zacha To Miss Olympics
The Bruins will have one less participant at the upcoming Olympics while Czechia will be down a key center. The IIHF announced (Twitter link) that Pavel Zacha will not be participating in the event due to injury. He has been replaced by middleman Filip Chlapik.
Zacha has been dealing with a lower-body injury for a little more than a week after sustaining it late last month against Philadelphia, ultimately causing him to miss the Winter Classic as well. Originally, head coach Marco Sturm had noted that the injury wasn’t expected to force him to miss the Olympics which suggests that Zacha’s recovery hasn’t gone quite as well as they hoped so far. Now, he’ll get three extra weeks to recover before games resume toward the end of the month.
The 28-year-old is in the midst of a solid season, notching 15 goals and 22 assists in 54 games while averaging a little over 17 minutes per night of ice time. That production has been good enough to place him fourth in team scoring at the break.
It’s likely that Zacha would have had a similar role at the Olympics that he has in Boston, serving as a second-line center while seeing time on both special teams units. Coincidentally, he sits fourth in scoring among NHLers on the Czech roster, behind teammate David Pastrnak, Colorado’s Martin Necas, and Vegas’ Tomas Hertl.
As for Chlapik, he was a second-round pick by Ottawa in 2015 and got into 57 games with them over parts of four seasons before being granted his release back in 2021. Since then, he has spent the majority of his time playing at home with HC Sparta Praha and sits third in Extraliga scoring this season with 19 goals and 26 assists in 45 games.
Team Canada To Replace Injured Brayden Point With Seth Jarvis
After five days of practices, Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brayden Point has determined he will not be healthy enough to join Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics. He has been removed from the roster and will be replaced by Carolina Hurricanes’ winger Seth Jarvis, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Point sustained a knee injury in Tampa Bay’s January 12th win over the Philadelphia Flyers. The injury knocked him off the ice until last Saturday, when he returned to practice with the hopes of working back to health in time for a trip to Milan, per Eduardo A. Encina of Tampa Bay Times. Despite that return, Point has determined he won’t be at 100 percent before games kick off. Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois commended Point – and Tampa Bay teammate Anthony Cirelli – for their selflessness in giving up their spot rather than trying to play through injury in a text to LeBrun.
This switch will bring on some stylistic changes for Team Canada. Point is often used as a center, though seemed headed for a wing-role in Milan in part thanks to his 45.9 faceoff percentage this season. He is a reserved scorer who has managed 11 goals and 30 points in 37 games, typically finding his scoring chances from the slot. Jarvis has proven much more aggressive in recent years, typically operating as the first-man-in on Carolina’s forecheck and cutting his teeth in board battles. He has 69 hits on the season to Point’s four. Jarvis has also scored 25 goals and 43 points in 48 games, continuing his knack for strong scoring after cresting the 30-goal and 65-point mark in each of the last two seasons.
Both players found an impact for Team Canada at the 2025 4-Nations Face-Off. Point served up the lineup and managed two points in four games, while Jarvis defaulted to the bottom-six and scored one assist in three games. They were both on the ice for the tournament finale against Team USA, where Point’s 21 minutes of ice time ranked second on the offense behind only Connor McDavid. Jarvis played roughly 13 minutes in that game – second-lowest on the team ahead of Brad Marchand.
That deployment goes far in painting Canada’s view of the two stars. While Jarvis has acheived more success this season, he is still the junior to two-time Stanley Cup winner Point. Jarvis is six years younger and still carving out his presence in the NHL. This year’s Winter Olympics could go far in helping cement his status, especially after Jarvis only attended two tournaments with Canada – the 2019 World U-17 Hockey Championshp and Hlinka Gretzky Cup – prior to his selection to the 4-Nations roster. This will be his biggest stage yet and it comes at a perfect time. Jarvis is red-hot, with 10 points and a plus-eight in his last nine games, of which Carolina has won seven.
Notably, this decisions will leave Winnipeg Jets star Mark Scheifele and Chicago Blackhawks cornerstone Connor Bedard both at home. Scheifele hasn’t represented Canada internationally since the 2017 World Championship when he scored eight points in 10 games. Nearly a decade later, the Jets alternate captain is on pace for 40 goals and 100 points this season – so far at 27 goals and 68 points in 56 games. Bedard has offered plenty of offensive punch of his own, with 23 goals and 53 points in 43 games on a struggling Blackhawks offense. The duo are two of the league’s most skilled scorers but will be superceded by a winger who offers a bit more intangibles.
Photo courtesy of Sergei Belski-Imagn Images.
Anthony Cirelli To Miss Olympics
In an unfortunate update, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared that Tampa Bay Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli will be unable to play for Team Canada in the upcoming Olympics due to injury. Friedman added that Sam Bennett would replace Cirelli on Team Canada’s roster.
Cirelli, 28, sustained the injury in Tampa Bay’s Stadium Series win over the Boston Bruins. He was on the receiving end of a hard hit from Bruins forward Mark Kastelic in the first period and didn’t return to the game. He finished the game with a +1 rating in 6:25 of action.
Since then, there haven’t been any firm updates. After the game, head coach Jon Cooper was quoted as saying, “It was kind of a stinger. Cirell’s a tough kid. For him not to come back, clearly, there’s something wrong with him. So hopefully he’ll be okay. There’s some big games coming up ahead of him.”
Unfortunately, those big games will have to wait for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s a tough break for a player who has dramatically turned his career around in recent years and helped Team Canada win the 4 Nations Face-Off last season.
Back in the 2022-23 season, after scoring 11 goals and 29 points in 58 games, Cirelli became a legitimate trade candidate for the Lightning. Tampa Bay had just signed him to an eight-year, $50MM extension, a high price to play for a center that wasn’t always available.
Still, over the last two years, he’s made that contract look well worth it, scoring 42 goals and 94 points in 129 games with a 49.4% success rate in the faceoff dot. Furthermore, he’s responsible on his own end, managing a 91.2% on-ice SV% at even strength through 49 games this season.
While it’s a depressing development for Cirelli, Team Canada has added more snarl to their forward core at the very least. Bennett scored one goal in three games during last year’s 4 Nations tournament. He famously got into a fight with Brady Tkachuk during the opening minutes of the much-awaited tilt with the United States. Outside of the obvious, Olympic opponents will be extra intimidated by Team Canada, which will also have Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson.
It’ll be interesting to see how Bennett responds offensively. Due to the number of injuries suffered by the Panthers this year, Bennett has earned more responsibility. At this time last year, he had scored 17 goals and 33 points in 53 games. This season, he has 19 goals and 42 points in 55 contests.
While that isn’t the typical production of a forward on Team Canada, Bennett tends to raise his game when the lights are brightest. Over the past three postseasons, Bennett has helped Florida reach three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals, scoring 27 goals and 51 points in 62 games, culminating in the Conn Smythe Trophy last season.