Five Devils Named to Preliminary Olympic Rosters | BLOG

The New Jersey Devils will have a strong presence at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina. On Monday, the participating countries announced their first six players named to their Olympic rosters, with the remainder of the roster only needing to be locked in just prior to the start of the games in February 2026. The Devils and Florida Panthers each had five players selected for the preliminary Olympic rosters, the highest in the NHL.

Switzerland will go Devils-heavy with Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, and Jonas Siegenthaler all selected as part of the first six players. All three were on this year's silver-medal winning World championship roster, never passing up an opportunity to represent their home country. With NHL players returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2014, this will be the first opportunity on the most significant international stage for all three Devils players.

For Palat, this will be his second Olympic Games, having represented Czechia in 2014 in Sochi. He participated in four games in 2014 as Czechia was knocked out by the United States in quarterfinal play.

Simon Nemec, who will turn 22 years old just as the Olympics begin, will be playing in his second Games, having played in 2022 when Slovakia won a bronze medal just before being drafted by the Devils.

The 2026 men's Olympic tournament will begin with preliminary games on February 11, 2026, and will continue until February 22, with the gold medal game.

The group breakdowns are as follows:

• Group A: Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, France

• Group B: Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Italy

• Group C: USA, Germany, Latvia, Denmark

Finland is the defending champion, having won the 2022 Games in Beijing without participation from NHL players. These upcoming games will mark the first time NHL players compete in the tournament since 2014.