Predicting the Team Czechia Roster for 2026 Milan Olympics

For the first time since Sochi in 2014, the NHL will be participating in the Winter Olympics. Well, at least they’re supposed to. If you haven’t been keeping up with Olympic news, there’s some concern the arena in Milan that’s still under construction won’t be ready in time, and it’s already been confirmed that the size of the rink wI’ll be smaller than the standards agreed upon by the NHL, NHLPA, IIHF, and Olympic committees. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly has even said there isn’t a zero percent chance that the players won't be going.

But assuming the players go as planned, and as we inch closer to kicking off the 2026 Milan Olympic Games, Chris Feldman, Roberto Solis-Byxbee, and Chip are here with projections on how some of the rosters will shape out for some of the top countries in the tournament.

To get things started, let's talk about Team Czechia, who is probably one of the top dark horse candidates to make some noise in the Olympics, outside of the countries that made up the 4 Nations Face-Off played earlier this year.

Chris' Projected Roster

Cervenka - Zacha - Pastrnak 
Palat - Hertl - Necas
Kulich - Faksa - Flek 
Sedlak - Ivan - Tomasek  
Kubalik - Lauko - Kase

Jiricek - Hronek 
Ruutta - Gudas
Hajek - Spacek 
Kempny - Kostalek

Dostal - Dobes - Vejmelka 

Goaltending is definitely the strong suit for Czechia. There are only 25 active NHLers who hail from this country and eight of them are goaltenders. Anaheim's Lukas Dostal will likely be the team's number one with Jakub Dobes and Karel Vejmelka the two favorites to round out the crease.

Up front, they’ll have some stars in David Pastrnak, Martin Necas, and Filip Hronek, but beyond them it gets a little bleak. Roman Cervenka spent 39 games with the Calgary Flames in 2013 but has since carved out a remarkable career for himself overseas. At 40-years-old, he still puts up well over a point-per-game with Pardubice HC. What he lacks for in NHL experience, he makes up for in representing his country as he’s dawned the “C” on his jersey in previous international tournaments with Czechia.

It bears repeating that it’s such a shame Filip Chytil can’t stay healthy as he could easily be a top six forward on this Olympic roster. They'll get some help from Ondrej Palat, Pavel Zacha, and Tomas Hertl, but the majority of the roster will contain NHL depth players both current (Radek Faksa, Juri Kulich, Ivan Ivan and David Tomasek) and former (Jakub Lauko, Dominik Kubalik and Ondrej Kase), as well as some of the top point producers in Czechia's top league (Lukas Sedlak and Jakub Flek).

Defense is another big question mark for Team Czechia. I made the joke when we first talked about doing this that Libor Hajek might be the best left shot defenseman on this team and, well, I don’t think I’m wrong. There’s some NHL talent here with Filip Hronek, Radko Gudas, and David Jirieck, all of whom shoot right. Beyond that, you have a couple more former NHLers and fringe guys in Jan Ruutta and David Spacek. The last two I have are Michael Kempny—who isn’t too far removed from the NHL—and Jan Kostalek. Kostalek, another right shot defenseman, was a fourth round pick in the 2013 draft by the Winnipeg Jets. While he never made the NHL, he’s been a top point producer on the back end in Czechia.  

Chip's Projected Roster

Cervinka - Zacha - Pasternak
Palat - Hertll - Necas
Kubalik - Faska - Jagr
Kulich - Ivan - Fleck
Sedlak - Lauko - Tomasek

Jiricek - Hronek 
Ruutta - Gudas
Hajek - Spacek 
Kempny - Kostalek

Dostal - Dobes - Vejmelka 

Yikes. I mean, really, yikes. Look, I don’t think Jaromir Jagr is actually going to play for Team Czechia, but he probably could, and maybe he should. Without Filip Chytil this team is really thin down the middle and, quite honestly, if Libor Hajek is an actual option for your team defensively then your team has some major issues defensively. This team is going to need all of our thoughts and prayers if they’re going to have a hope of placing for a medal.

Roberto's Projected Roster

Necas - Zacha - Pastrnak 
Cervenka - Hertl - Palat
Kulich - Faksa - Flek 
Sedlak - Chytil- Tomasek  
Kubalik - Ivan- Kase

Jiricek - Gudas 
Ruutta - Hronek
Kostalek- Spacek 
Kempny - Krejcik

Dostal - Dobes - Vejmelka

So yeah, this is certainly a team. But before you scroll down to the comments, just know that, despite the lack of big names on this roster, Czechia really has the potential to be a dark horse in this tournament. As Chris pointed out, they have plenty of options in net, and while the likes of Dostal, Dobes, or Vejmelka haven't fully proven themselves at an NHL level just yet, they are stars on the horizon. Hell, New York Rangers fans should remember just how good Lukas Dostal can be after watching the Anaheim Ducks roll through Broadway last week.

Aside from assembling the Czech equivalent of the Avengers on their top line, where I mostly break away from Chris and Chip when I include Filip Chytil. With all due respect to the Chytil camp, should he participate in the Olympics? Probably not. But the poor kid has already suffered so much, and I like the idea of him getting the opportunity to represent his country because I think it would make him happy. We, and he, deserve nice things.

The other difference in my prediction is on the back end. For whatever reason, Libor Hajek is the darling of Czechia and will more than likely make the team. However, I do think there are better options out there. So I have both Jakub Krejcik and the leading-scoring defenseman in the Czech league, Jan Kostalek, representing Team Czechia. Krejcik has 17 points in 27 games, and Kostalek has 27 points in 30 games. Let's be real, Czechia is going to need all the firepower they can get to keep up with the favorites of this tournament.