Nikolas Matinpalo has had a tough time working in his passion for cross country skiing — which he labels as great exercise — around his pro hockey career over the past eight years.
For most people, a midseason break from work and a February trip to Italy would probably spell an opportunity to get back on the skis. For Matinpalo, though, there will still be no time for trails — he’s there to chase gold with the Finnish hockey team at the Milano-Cortina Olympics.
“Well of course, winning,” Matinpalo said when asked what he was looking forward to the most about the tournament. “We want to win the whole tournament, and I think we have a good team, so we have a possibility to win.”
With Milan being just a three-hour flight from Espoo (the suburb of Finland’s capital Helsinki where he grew up), Matinpalo has already been to the city. But of course, this time will be a business trip, and much different than his previous visits to the city.
“That was a vacation then, so it was a little bit different than now,” said Matinpalo, whose family will also be travelling to Milan to watch the games. “But yeah, cool city, a lot of good restaurants, good food, nice people. But of course, now it’s more a job than a vacation.”
Matinpalo has competed in two World Championships for Team Finland (2023 and 2025). Last February, he got the late nod as an injury replacement for the country’s entry into the 4 Nations Face-Off. This time around, Matinpalo has known he would be a part of the team since Boxing Day.
The steady Ottawa Senators defenceman — he’s known as ‘Manti’ around the dressing room — will join a defence core in Italy that consists of Miro Heiskanen, Henri Jokiharju, Mikko Lehtonen, Esa Lindell, Olli Maata, Niko Mikkola, and Rasmus Ristolainen.
The most welcome name on that list for Finns is probably Heiskanen — who missed the 4-Nations tournament with a knee injury. For Matinpalo, it’s no different. The Olympics spell the first chance to play with Heiskanen, a former childhood teammate, internationally.
They also spell a third chance to play internationally with another childhood teammate, Eeli Tolvanen, who was on both the 4-Nations team and the 2025 World Championship team.
“We don’t have that many NHL players, so, last year at 4-Nations, I played with basically [the whole Olympic team], said Matinpalo. “But those two guys, I played with in junior, so it’s nice to see those guys.”
Matinpalo’s road to the Olympics has been longer than most — much different than Heiskanen, who was drafted third overall by Dallas in 2017. Heiskanen played at two World Junior Championships and the 2018 Olympics for Finland as an 18-year-old and broke into the NHL a season later.
In contrast, Matinpalo stands as one of four players on Team Finland that went undrafted to the NHL (Joel Kiviranta, Kevin Lankinen, and Lehtonen are the others). After signing with Ottawa following the 2022-23 Liiga season, he’s now appeared in 81 NHL games with the Senators, including six in the playoffs last May.
“Definitely a dream of mine to get to the Olympics and put that national team jersey on, but four years ago, I was playing Finnish league, so I wasn’t really thinking about the Olympics at that time,” Matinpalo told media the day the rosters were announced.
“Of course, it’s big stakes. A lot of people in Finland watch those games. I’ll just try to prepare like a playoff game or a 4-Nations game. It’s going to be nice.”
And while there may be no time for the trails in Milan — it’s all business — Matinpalo is hoping to catch countryman Iivo Niskanen, a three-time Olympic gold medallist, in action at some point.
