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Ryan S. Clark
For months, there were various projections on which NHL players would make their countries’ rosters for the 2026 Olympic Games.
Now those projections have turned into actual rosters, which reinforces just how quickly the tournament in the Milan-Cortina Games is approaching on Feb. 11. It’s the first time since 2014 that the Olympics will have NHL players.
Deliberating how the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden, among other nations, could perform at the Olympics has spawned several discussions. Give it enough time, and there’s a chance that at least one of those conversations could eventually turn to Russia’s absence.
suspended the Russian Olympic Committee in 2022 after imposing sanctions stating the country violated the Olympic Charter with its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A small group of individual Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to participate at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris under a neutral flag.
The Russian discourse in hockey has been ongoing since 2022. The latest entry occurred ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off in Boston and Montreal last season. Introducing the 4 Nations Face Off — along with NHL players returning to the Olympics — was a reboot of the NHL having more of its players participate in international competitions beyond the IIHF world championships — an event that is held annually during the same time as the Stanley Cup playoffs.
One of the reasons why the NHL created the 4 Nations event was to create a best-on-best international competition. Of course, that raised questions about why countries such as Czechia, Germany and Switzerland were omitted because they did not have enough NHL players, and the conversation included Russia’s situation as well.
The conversation about Russia’s position in the world of hockey has continued ahead of the Olympic Games, particularly with the number of Russian-born NHL stars. Here’s a hypothetical look at what a Russian Olympic team would have looked like in 2026.
Alex Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov and Artemi Panarin.
The concern for this team would be its options at center.
Evgeni Malkin was averaging 1.12 points per game earlier this season, before sustaining an upper-body injury that kept him sidelined for a month. He returned Jan. 8, and had two points in his first three games. Having a healthy Malkin back less than a month before the opening ceremonies would be one less item for Russia to worry about with its centers. He can create for himself and for others in various situations, and is their most proven center by a wide margin.
There have been only five Russian players in the NHL this season who have logged more than 100 faceoffs. Malkin is the most successful member of that group, with a 45.2% success rate.
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Evgeni Malkin tallies goal for Pittsburgh Penguins on the power play
Evgeni Malkin scores power-play goal vs. Devils
Who else makes the cut?
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Rookie Danila Yurov became the Minnesota Wild’s top-line center, which makes him one of the strongest candidates as Russia’s No. 2 behind Malkin. Yurov has six goals and 16 points through 39 games. That’s already more points than what other Russian NHL centers like Vladislav Namestnikov and Fedor Svechkov are projected to have throughout the rest of the regular season. Namestnikov is on pace to have 16 points, while Svechkov is projected to finish with 17.
Namestnikov and Svechkov do offer value in another area, in that they could be used on the penalty kill. Malkin’s last season of more than 10 short-handed minutes came in 2015-16, when he logged 15:19, whereas Yurov has 51 seconds on the PK in 2025-26.
But, there’s a pair of KHL centers — Ruslan Abrosimov (Severstal Cherepovets) and Roman Kantserov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk) — that are also worth considering.
Abrosimov is averaging 0.84 points per game this season. He’s won 50.2% of his 582 draws through Jan. 12, while logging 1:19 in short-handed minutes per game. Chicago Blackhawks prospect Kantserov is averaging 1.20 points per game, having moved to center at the start of the season. He’s won 43.7% of his 647 faceoffs, while averaging 0:44 in short-handed ice time per game.
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Let’s say Russia picks Abrosimov in this hypothetical setup. Going with Abrosimov, Malkin, Namestnikov and Yurov presents another question: Would it make more sense to have two wingers as the extra forwards, or would Russia be better off taking one extra center and one extra winger to make game-by-game adjustments?
The idea of taking Kantersov presents intrigue. The same can also be said of young NHL wingers like Ivan Demidov or Matvei Michkov. What the teams experienced at 4 Nations reinforced the need for teams to have different options when it comes to their extra forwards. Pavel Buchnevich and Pavel Dorofeyev are just that. Buchnevich is on pace for his sixth season of more than 100 short-handed minutes, and is a six-time 20 goal scorer. Dorofeyev finished with 35 goals last season, and is projected to finish with more than 30 this season.
Russia’s defensive setup under this hypothetical appears as if it would have fewer selection questions by comparison.
If anything, the biggest looming question facing Russia would have been which one of its NHL defensemen it left at home. Russia has nine NHL defensemen averaging 19 minutes or more per game this season. That could have created a selection challenge, but it became a non-issue with Alexander Romanov sustaining a right shoulder injury back in November that would have seen him miss the Olympics.
Goaltenders
Russia possesses a high amount of talent on the wing, and has impressive defensive depth. Those are two of its greatest strengths, but the most important component of its roster would be the wealth of options in goal.
Simply put, Russia is in a golden age of goaltending, how the nation is producing them and the need for more NHL teams to find the next great one.
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Former NHL goalie and San Jose Sharks director of goaltending Evgeni Nabokov was slated to be Russia’s goalie coach if NHL players were allowed to play at the 2022 Olympics, and faced a dilemma on whom to choose for that team.
«At some point I looked and asked myself, ‘How do I make a choice here?'» Nabokov told ESPN in 2023. «It’s almost like you can dream of having that many good goaltenders. But I have to pick three. Then, I have to pick the one who is going to play. … It’s just unreal. You can probably say three of them are among the five best goalies in the world.»
That’s what happens when a nation has three Vezina Trophy winners in Sergei Bobrovsky, Igor Shesterkin and Andrei Vasilevskiy, while Ilya Sorokin has finished in the top six of Vezina voting three times.
Does that mean that Russia would take all three of its Vezina winners and leave Sorokin at home if it was going to the Olympics in 2026? Or could it be Sorokin who makes the roster over Bobrovsky?
Bobrovsky has won the last two Stanley Cups with the Florida Panthers. He’s appeared in 47 playoff games over the two most recent postseasons, which is the most of any goalie. His 5.60 goals saved above average in that time frame is third among goalies, while his .919 playoff save percentage is ninth among goalies who have faced more than 100 shots over the last two postseasons.
Sorokin has appeared in only one playoff game in the last two seasons. That came in Game 3 of the first round in 2024 in which he was pulled after allowing three goals in 27:14. However, what he’s done in that same span in the regular season is what creates questions. No goaltender faced more shots between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons than Sorokin. He had the third-best save percentage among goalies with more than 4,000 minutes, and he was third in GSAA, with a 27.30 mark.
week-to-week after sustaining a lower-body injury on Jan. 5.
