The 12 countries participating in men’s hockey at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 are naming the first six players to their preliminary rosters Monday.
The men’s tournament will start with preliminary games Feb. 11, with the gold medal game scheduled for Feb. 22.
The remainder of the rosters will be announced later this year.
This is the first time NHL players will participate in the Olympics since 2014.
Here are the first six players on Team Czechia’s preliminary roster (listed in alphabetical order):
Lukas Dostal, G
Dostal, who turns 25 on June 22, was 23-23-7 with a 3.10 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage in his first season as the Anaheim Ducks' No. 1 goalie. The Brno native won bronze at the 2022 World Championships and gold at the 2024 Worlds, posting a 1.58 GAA and a .939 save percentage in eight games.
Radko Gudas, D
The captain from the 2024 World Championship-winning roster, Gudas will be competing at the Olympics for a second time after playing three games for the Czech Republic in 2014. The 35-year-old and Prague native had 16 points (one goal, 15 assists) and 86 penalty minutes in 81 games for Anaheim this season and finished eighth in the NHL with 261 hits and ninth with 178 blocked shots. He has 198 points (40 goals, 158 assists) in 829 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, Florida Panthers and the Ducks.
Martin Necas, F
Splitting time between the Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes this season, Necas set NHL career highs in assists (56) and points (83) in 79 games. The 26-year-old, who is from Nove Mesto na Morave, tied for third in the League with 37 power-play points and has won gold twice with Czechia, at the 2016 Hlinka Cup and the 2024 Worlds. In 12 games in two World Championship appearances, Necas has 12 points (four goals, eight assists).
Ondrej Palat, F
A two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Tampa Bay Lightning (2020, 2021), Palat has 505 points (177 goals, 328 assists) in 825 regular-season games and 51 goals in 155 Stanley Cup Playoff games. The 34-year-old from Frydek-Mistek had 28 points (15 goals, 13 assists) in 77 games this season, his third with the New Jersey Devils. He won gold at the 2024 Worlds and played at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
The third-highest scoring Czechia player in NHL history behind Jaromir Jagr (1,921) and Patrik Elias (1,025), Pastrnak has 833 points (391 goals, 442 assists) in 756 regular-season games and has had at least 40 goals in five of the past six seasons for the Boston Bruins.
A native of Havirov, the 29-year-old tied for third in the League this season with 106 points (43 goals, 63 assists) in 82 games. Pastrnak won bronze at the 2013 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, silver in 2014 at the U18 World Championship. He has two medals from the Worlds (bronze, 2022; gold 2024).
Pavel Zacha, F
A native of Brno, the 28-year-old had 47 points (14 goals, 33 assists) in 82 games for Boston this season after having at least 57 in each of the previous two. Zacha also plays on both special-teams units and took the second-most face-offs for the Bruins this season (739). He has 342 points (125 goals, 217 assists) in 628 games with the Devils and Bruins and won gold representing Czechia for the first time at the 2024 Worlds.
