By: Ryan Bosworth | Follow me on Twitter / X @RyanJBosworth
Earlier this morning, the participating countries in the 2026 Olympics announced their preliminary rosters, which featured the first six players from each team. The 12 participating countries are Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.
David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha are the first to be announced who will be playing for Czechia. The two Czech natives are no strangers to donning their home country’s colors, as they’ve been teammates at the recent IIHF World Championship tournaments for a few years now, bringing home gold in the 2024 tournament.
Along with Zacha and Pastrnak, Bruins’ star defenseman Charlie McAvoy was named to Team USA’s preliminary roster. After not attending the 2025 IIHF World Championship, which saw Team USA skate away with a gold medal, it’s promising to see McAvoy head to Italy to represent the red, white, and blue.
He most recently donned America’s colors during the Four Nations Face-Off, and despite sustaining a season-ending injury during the tournament, he described it as “an incredible experience,” and he waited his “whole life to be a part of something like that.”
There were some notable names left off of their country’s preliminary rosters, such as Elias Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm, and Dans Locmelis, especially considering Elias Lindholm’s dominant performance at the IIHF World Championship, but it’s more than likely that these players will later be added to their respective countries’ rosters.
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