Hey everyone, it’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything on my website, especially hockey-related. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is having a good start to 2023. Starting today, I plan to be more active on here and have roughly 15 articles planned between now and the end of March, with two articles coming out per week.
Today, I’m starting an eight-part series predicting rosters for the 2026 Winter Olympics, which are set to be hosted in Italy in just over three years. The nine highest ranked nations by the International Ice Hockey Federation automatically qualify for the Olympics, as well as three other nations via a final qualifying tournament, which will be held in late-August/early-September 2025.
First team up is the number one ranked nation currently by the IIHF, Finland. Finland’s success at the senior men’s level in IIHF competition can not be overlooked. After winning their first ever gold medal in hockey at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Finland added a World Championship title on home ice just three months later. Finland has appeared in three of the last four World Championship gold medal games, winning two of them.
Let’s take a look at the 25 players that, in my eyes, will represent Finland at the 2026 Winter Olympics. In brackets is their age at the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics, which is Friday, February 6th. The players’ current team is also listed.
Goalies (3)
- Joonas Korpisalo (31) – Columbus Blue Jackets
- Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (26) – Buffalo Sabres
- Juuse Saros (30) – Nashville Predators
Defencemen (8)
- Ville Heinola (24) – Winnipeg Jets
- Miro Heiskanen (26) – Dallas Stars
- Henri Jokiharju (26) – Buffalo Sabres
- Aron Kiviharju (20) – TPS Turku
- Esa Lindell (31) – Dallas Stars
- Olli Maatta (31) – Detroit Red Wings
- Urho Vaakanainen (27) – Anaheim Ducks
- Juuso Valimaki (27) – Arizona Coyotes
Forwards (14)
- Sebastian Aho (28) – Carolina Hurricanes
- Aleksander Barkov (30) – Florida Panthers
- Mikael Granlund (33) – Nashville Predators
- Erik Haula (34) – New Jersey Devils
- Roope Hintz (29) – Dallas Stars
- Joakim Kemell (21) – JYP
- Jesperi Kotkaniemi (25) – Carolina Hurricanes
- Patrik Laine (27) – Columbus Blue Jackets
- Artturi Lehkonen (30) – Colorado Avalanche
- Anton Lundell (24) – Florida Panthers
- Mikko Rantanen (29) – Colorado Avalanche
- Aatu Raty (23) – Bridgeport Islanders
- Teuvo Teravainen (31) – Carolina Hurricanes
- Eeli Tolvanen (26) – Seattle Kraken
Thank you to those who have been reading, I appreciate it. Next up in this series will be Canada, on January 17th. Along with this Olympic series, I have 2023 Draft rankings, Habs prospect updates and some trade deadline stuff coming over the next couple of months! Enjoy.
-Cooper.