Fehervary of Capitals to be counted on for Slovakia at Olympics

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Martin Fehervary has been eagerly awaiting two major life events.

The first is the birth of his first child, which is expected any day now.

The second will be playing for Slovakia in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. It will be the Washington Capitals defenseman's first time playing in the Olympics.

"I feel like it's every kid's dream to play for the national team in the (IIHF) World Championship, but the Olympic games is something even more special," Fehervary said. "It's not like every year and it's, obviously, one of the biggest events for hockey. So, I'm super excited and really fortunate to play there."

Although Fehervary has been looking forward to the Olympics, his excitement has been pushed into the back of his mind during the Capitals' six-game road trip that ends against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+). With his girlfriend Natalia's due date coming during the trip, he was prepared to head home at a moment's notice.

When Washington returns home following the game in Detroit, Fehervary will have only about a week before he leaves for Italy without Natalia.

"She won't be able to come, and I'm a little bit, obviously, disappointed, but we've got to do what's best for the baby," Fehervary said. "It is actually a little bit unfortunate. It's my first Olympics and first baby, too. So, kind of tough timing for me."

Fehervary's father, Mario, will be there for Slovakia's Olympic opener against Finland on Feb. 11 (10:40 a.m. ET; USA, CBC), though, along with his brother, Gabriel, and some other family members and friends. The 26-year-old remembers watching Slovakia play in the Olympics when he was younger.

Fehervary was 10 when a star-filled Slovakia team at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics that included Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, Marian Gaborik and Jaroslav Halak upset Russia (and current Capitals teammate Alex Ovechkin) 2-1 in the preliminary round, with the late Pavol Demitra scoring the deciding goal in the seventh round of the shootout.

"That was a really great memory," Fehervary said.

Slovakia finished fourth in that tournament after losing 3-2 to Canada in the semifinals and letting a two-goal lead slip away in a 5-3 loss to Finland in the bronze medal game.

"They were right there," Fehervary said. "But at that time, we had also a different amount of players in the NHL than it is right now. So, it is a little bit different."

The 2010 Slovakian Olympic team had 13 players who played in the NHL at the time and several others who played in the League previously. Fehervary is one of seven NHL players on Slovakia's roster for these Olympics, along with forwards Juraj Slafkovsky (Montreal Canadiens), Dalibor Dvorsky (St. Louis Blues), Martin Pospisil (Calgary Flames) and Pavol Regenda (San Jose Sharks), and defensemen Erik Cernak (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Simon Nemec (New Jersey Devils).

Fehervary, who is in his sixth NHL season with Washington after it selected him in the second round (No. 46) of the 2018 NHL Draft, is expected to play a pivotal role on Slovakia's defense.

"For sure, he's going to be a leader in the group on the ice and off the ice," Regenda said. "He's just a good person. You can see he works hard on the ice. He's going to be the best 'D' on our team. He has a lot of experience and, hopefully, he's going to have a good tournament. We don't have a lot of guys in the NHL, so we are happy to have him."

Fehervary, who has 19 points (three goals, 16 assists) while averaging 18:57 in ice time in 54 games this season, often gets overlooked outside Washington, where he plays alongside bigger names on Capitals defense such as John Carlson and Jakob Chychrun. The Capitals appreciate what he means to their defense, though, either with Carlson on their top pair or in a shutdown pair with Matt Roy.

If they needed a reminder, they got it when Fehervary missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season while recovering from surgery to repair a torn meniscus. After finishing first in the Eastern Conference and second in the NHL with 111 points (51-22-9) during the regular season, Washington lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the playoffs.

"I don't want to overstate it, but I think I'm safe to tell you when I was breaking that series down and why we weren't quite able to get to the way that we wanted it to look, that is up there," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said of Fehervary's injury. "Lack of finish, special teams and Marty Fehervary are right up there."

The Capitals didn't hesitate to lock up Fehervary long term, signing him to a seven-year, $42 million contract ($6 million average annual value) that begins next season, on July 1. Carbery believes playing in the Olympics will help the rest of the world see how good Fehervary is, too.

“I remember watching him at the World Juniors and he would jump off the page in those games for his team in going up against the top Canadian players and the top U.S. players," Carbery said. "So I think it's no different when he goes to the Olympics. He thrives and relishes the opportunity to go against the world's best."

Fehervary played for Slovakia three times at the IIHF World Junior Championship (2017, 2018, 2019) and four times at the World Championship (2018, 2019, 2022, 2024).

Although he's never won a medal in international play, he has fond memories of those experiences, especially when Slovakia hosted the Worlds in 2019 in his hometown of Bratislava and Kosice.

In the preliminary round, Slovakia won 4-1 against a loaded United States team that included Johnny Gaudreau, Dylan Larkin, Chris Kreider, Patrick Kane, Jack Eichel, Alex DeBrincat, Quinn Hughes and Jack Hughes, and lost 6-5 to Canada when Mark Stone scored the winning goal with one second left in regulation.

"I wasn't in the NHL at that time, but we played some really good hockey," Fehervary said. "That was a really, really special moment actually."

Slovakia won the bronze medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, but Fehervary knows it will be a tall order to come home with a medal again from Milano Cortina with NHL players participating in the Winter Games for the first time since 2014 in Sochi.

"Obviously, we can't really compare to the other teams like Canada or Sweden or USA, but I think we still have a pretty good team," Fehervary said. "Our biggest goal is to play our system and play good hockey. I think if we do that, I think we've got a chance to beat those teams, like Sweden and Finland.

"Let's be honest; it's obviously going to be really, really difficult, but I've seen that our team can beat good teams."

Fehervary plans to do his best to help Slovakia do that.

"I want to be one of the leaders," he said. "I feel like I can bring a lot to that team. I think the leader needs to be one of the best on the ice, but also do some talks off the ice and help the team, help the younger guys to improve the game. I think that's really important and I think I'm in the position right now that I can bring that to the team."