Hockey in 2026 starts with a bang: World Juniors, Winter Classic and a race to the Olympics
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:James Mirtle
If you're just coming out of your holiday hibernation, let’s get you up to speed on everything happening across the hockey world.
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Happy New Year, folks. I know you’re just coming out of your holiday hibernation, but there’s a ton happening across the hockey world, so let’s get you up to speed.
(Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Team USA announces Olympic rosters
A few new faces and a couple of big snubs were the story as the United States named its men’s roster for the Olympics early this morning on NBC’s “Today” show.
The roster:
Not on the team? Stars winger Jason Robertson, who sits second in goals and points among all U.S. players in the NHL this season, and Rangers defenseman Adam Fox, who had played at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
New additions who weren’t at the 4 Nations, meanwhile, include Seth Jones on defense and Tage Thompson and Clayton Keller up front, adding some serious size and skill to an already loaded lineup.
It’s a credit to the Americans’ rapidly improving talent pool that they can leave such talented players at home, although not having Fox and Robertson will definitely be second-guessed if this team lacks enough firepower come February.
• The U.S. women are low on surprises and high on star power, with 21 returning players from its gold medal turn at the World Championships. They’re the team to beat.
• If you missed it earlier in the week, Team Canada announced its men’s roster, with a couple of unexpected names mixed in.
• Unfortunately, however, one of those nice surprises, Bo Horvat, was hurt last night, so we await word on how serious that is — and if we have to start the or Sam Bennett debates anew.
• Canada GM Doug Armstrong explains the finer details of his staff’s selection process in a sitdown with our Pierre LeBrun.
(Brad Rempel / Getty Images)
🎇 2026 starts with a bang
Ideally, you had at least a bit of a forced break from hockey watching over Christmas, because things are about to get rather harried on the puck calendar — starting a few hours from now.
First up: The World Juniors in Minnesota hits the elimination games with a quarterfinal quadruple header beginning early this afternoon.
The full quarterfinal schedule — all games on NHL Network in the U.S. and TSN in Canada:
Sweden vs. Latvia (2 p.m. ET)
Czechia vs. Switzerland (4:30 p.m. ET)
United States vs. Finland (6 p.m. ET)
Canada vs. Slovakia (8:30 p.m. ET)
The tournament will reseed for Sunday’s semifinals, which means if the favorites all win here — a decent bet — then Canada and the U.S. would face one another for the right to move onto the gold-medal game on Monday.
These two countries have owned the gold the past six tournaments, with the Americans taking the last two, so that’ll be a huge one. But they’ve got to get there first.
Also on tap tonight: The Winter Classic with the Florida Panthers hosting the New York Rangers in hockey-mad Miami (?!) at 8 p.m. ET.
Since the first Winter Classic in snowy Buffalo back in 2008, the NHL has had several outdoor games in warm-weather spots (including Dallas for the 2020 game) but nothing as far south as the Miami Marlins’ LoanDepot Park.
The plan is to have the ice surface be an inch thicker than normal and the retractable roof open for puck drop, although they’ll have the option to keep it closed if temperatures rise. Right now, it’s projected to be 65 degrees with modest humidity, so they should be fine?
Speaking of fine, this will be one nice jersey matchup. You can catch the game on TNT, TruTV and HBO Max in the U.S. and Sportsnet in Canada (TVA Sports has the French broadcast).
And then: Once the outdoor games and World Juniors and roster announcements are out of the way in the next few days? It’ll be a pure sprint to the Olympics themselves, with every NHL club cramming in roughly 3½ games a week between now and the Feb. 6 league shutdown.
As of this morning, it’s just 34 days until the start of the women’s tournament and 40 until the start of the men’s in Milan.
Can’t wait.
(Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
The year in hockey
Sean Gentille took a nice stroll down memory lane, looking back at the year that was in the NHL and beyond.
The two biggest stories were Alex Ovechkin taking over the league’s all-time goals mark on April 5 (he’s now at 912 and counting) and the Panthers storming to a second consecutive Stanley Cup win on June 17, although the 4 Nations Face-Off deserves an honorable mention, too.
The other memorable trend we saw in 2025, however, was some superstar player movement, with Quinn Hughes, Mitch Marner and Mikko Rantanen (twice!) all getting dealt. Here’s hoping 2026 is as trade-y, given how brutal free agency is looking.
We don’t often view the NHL in terms of the calendar year, given every season is split basically in half between two of ’em, but it’s interesting to take a look at the 2025 standings and stats as a snapshot of the past 12 months. (These are regular-season numbers, for what it’s worth.)
The top teams of 2025
Colorado, 123 points
Dallas, 118 points
Tampa Bay, 109 points
Washington, 106 points
Carolina, 104 points
The Avs’ ridiculous 30-2-7 start to the season pushed them ahead of Dallas here, and if they (and Nathan MacKinnon) continue to play like this, 2026 could definitely be their year.
The worst teams of 2025
San Jose, 67 points
Chicago, 70 points
Boston, 76 points
Nashville, 79 points
Seattle, 79 points
Does this look bad for all involved? Not really. The plucky Sharks are in a playoff spot, and everyone else here is still within a point or five, so 2026 could be a different story for every team on this list.
The top scorers of 2025
Nathan MacKinnon, 125 points
Nikita Kucherov, 118 points
Connor McDavid, 116 points
David Pastrnak, 113 points
Leon Draisaitl, 107 points
These were the only five players to hit the century mark in 2025, but Macklin Celebrini represents the next guard in sixth place with an impressive 98 points at just 19 years old. And honorable mention goes to Cale Makar, who sits in a tie for ninth with 91 points, nine ahead of the next highest D-man.
The top goalies of 2025
Ilya Sorokin, 53.6 goals saved above expected
Darcy Kuemper, 43.6 GSAx
Logan Thompson, 40.7 GSAx
Andrei Vasilevskiy, 40.1 GSAx
Connor Hellebuyck, 36.1 GSAx
Maybe a bit of a surprise at the top, but Sorokin quietly had a strong second half of last season and has been excellent for an Islanders team pushing to make the postseason. And they miss him due to injury right now, including getting blown out 7-2 against Utah yesterday.
🤔 MirTrivia Question
The Panthers ended up winning 61 games in 2025 overall (45 in the regular season and 16 in the playoffs), which is, incredibly, the third consecutive year they’ve won 60-plus games in a calendar year.
Only four other franchises have had a streak like that in NHL history.
How many of them can you name?
Answer below.
Coast to Coast
😂 Funnyman and longtime Kings fan Will Ferrell continued his long history of antics at Crypto.com Arena last night by dressing as a referee and making calls from the stands.
📣 How about 10 wins in a row for the Sabres, including a dominant win over the Stars?! The NHL’s regular feel-bad story has become a feel-good one real quickly.
🤔 Not all player acquisitions are good. Here are 20 new additions that may have caused teams to feel some buyer’s remorse right about now.
MirTrivia Answer
The Panthers’ three-year run of 60-win success puts them in some heady company in NHL history. The four other teams that have accomplished it are:
The dynasty Oilers (5x in a row, 1983-87)
The dynasty Islanders (4x, 1980-83)
The Red Wings (3x, 2007-09)
The dynasty Canadiens (3x, 1976-78)
Can Florida do it again? Well, entering the Winter Classic, they’re playing at a 44-win pace and are on pace to make the playoffs, which means they could definitely hit the 60 mark with another deep playoff run and good start to 2026-27.
They’ve certainly been playing some good hockey of late, with a 9-3-2 run over their last 14 games. And Matthew Tkachuk is on the verge of returning from injury, which should provide a further boost.
