The 2026 Olympic Winter Games will take place Feb. 6-22, 2026, in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. The men’s ice hockey tournament will be staged in Milan. The three preliminary round groups are listed below. The top finisher in each group, plus the next best team among the three groups, will get a bye to the tournament quarterfinals. The remaining eight teams will be seeded according to points in a qualification round to determine the four other quarterfinal participants.

Group A: Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, France
Group B: Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Italy
Group C: U.S., Germany, Latvia, Denmark

The U.S. team will be made of players from the NHL and its final roster is expected to be announced in early January 2026. The NHL has confirmed its players will participate in both the 2026 and 2030 Olympic Winter Games. .

NHL players have previously participated in five Olympic Winter Games, including in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. 

At the last Olympics Winter Games in 2022 in Beijing, China, the U.S. won all three of its preliminary round games, including a 4-2 victory over Canada, before dropping a heart-breaking 3-2 decision in a shootout against Slovakia in the quarterfinals to ultimately finish fifth.