Finland unveiled its roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 on Friday, a group that will try to bring the country its second straight gold medal.
Finland, which won gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, a tournament that did not feature NHL players, will feature a roster similar to the one it iced at the 4 Nations Face-Off this past February.
The one big difference is that Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov, Finland’s captain at 4 Nations, is out for the regular season with a knee injury. Trying to help pick up the slack for Barkov, Finland added Eeli Tolvanen (Seattle Kraken), Oliver Kapanen (Montreal Canadiens) and Joel Kiviranta (Colorado Avalanche) to its forward group.
"Nobody can replace Barkov, but we have a lot of different kind of leaders (on the ice and in the locker room)," Finland general manager Jere Lehtinen said. "They'll bring different kind of leadership to the team."
On defense, Mikko Lehtonen, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2020-21 season and now plays for the ZSC Lions in the Swiss National League, was added to the group from the 4 Nations Face-Off.
"We have a very experienced team, a lot of experience in playing for Team Finland," coach Antti Pennanen said. "Forwards that can play in many roles, big-sized defense with one of the best defensemen in the world (Miro Heiskanen). Good goalies."
This is the first group of NHL players to represent Finland at the Olympics since 2014, when NHL players most recently participated.
The tournament will feature all 12 teams playing three preliminary games in their respective groups.
The three group winners and the best second-place team will get a bye into the quarterfinals; the other eight teams will play single-elimination games to determine the other four quarterfinalists.
The gold-medal game will be held on Feb. 22.
"Team Finland always aims for a medal, no matter the tournament," Pennanen said.
Team Finland, which is in Group B, will open against Team Slovakia on Feb. 11, then play Team Sweden on Feb. 13 and Team Italy on Feb. 14.
Here is the Team Finland roster for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 (in alphabetical order) and a breakdown by NHL.com of each position group:
