Final men’s hockey rosters for the 2026 Milan/Cortina Olympics must be submitted Wednesday, the final day of calendar year 2025.
Final men’s hockey rosters for the 2026 Milan/Cortina Olympics must be submitted Wednesday, the final day of calendar year 2025. Three star United States-born players for the New York Rangers should know their fate Wednesday, even though Team USA won’t unveil its roster until Friday morning.
Team USA general manager Bill Guerin said he’ll call players to inform them of their status Wednesday.
Rangers captain J.T. Miller appears to be a roster lock for the United States, despite his current upper-body injury and declining production this season. His edge. physical play style, excellence in the face-off circle, and ability to shut down the opposition’s best players fit well in Team USA’s bottom-six forward group. It’s a role he played exceptionally well for the U.S., when they finished second in the 4 Nations Face-Off this past February.
Defenseman Adam Fox and center Vincent Trocheck also played in the 4 Nations best-on-best tournament. But they’re on the bubble for the final Team USA Olympic roster.
Fox struggled to keep up with the pace of play throughout that tournament, and was on the ice when Connor McDavid scored the overtime-winning goal for Canada in the championship game. The 27-year-old remains an elite defenseman, however, averaging pretty much a point per game (26 points in 27 games) this season, though he missed 14 games with an upper-body injury.
He’s likely back in the Rangers lineup for the first time in a month on Wednesday afternoon, when the Rangers visit the Washington Capitals. So, it’s going to be a positive day for Fox no matter what he hears from Team USA brass, who must decide if Fox is a better option than Seth Jones of the Florida Panthers or Noah Hanifin of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Trocheck brings similar attributes as Miller, including being a solid penalty killer. The U.S. management team must make a tough decision here if it comes down to keeping Trocheck or say Matt Boldy of the Minnesota Wild or red-hot Dallas Stars sniper Jason Robertson.
Rangers coach Mike Sullivan and general manager Chris Drury are part of Team USA’s decision-making group — Sullivan is the U.S. coach, as he was at 4 Nations. So, these Olympic roster decisions on Miller, Fox, and Trocheck are more dicey for them.
“Some of those last spots on the team are very, very difficult decisions,” Sullivan said earlier this week. “There’s a lot of good players. I think when you look at the state of American Hockey, where it is today versus where it was 20-25 years ago, just from a sheer volume standpoint, the number of players that are in contention to make an Olympic roster, there’s never been a higher volume of players than there is right now.”
If I was a betting man, as former Rangers coach Alain Vigneault — a Canadian, for what it’s worth — used to say quite often, my guess is that Fox and Miller land spots on the U.S. Olympic roster. Trocheck feels more 50-50. Though the prevailing sentiment is that he’ll make it too, my hunch says no.
Canada announces its roster Wednesday, and this story updates after the players are named. No Rangers are in the mix for a spot on Team Canada.
New York Rangers news and analysis
Here’s a detailed preview, complete with key storylines, for the Rangers’ final game of calendar year 2025, when they visit the Capitals in a Wednesday matinee in DC.
North Dakota men’s hockey coach Dane Jackson provided the inside scoop on top Rangers defenseman prospect EJ Emery in an exclusive interview with our Jennifer O’Regan.
Vladislav Gavrikov scored his first career power-play goal on Monday, and Sullivan explained why he had the defensive-minded defenseman on the point of PP1 in the first place.
The Happy New Year edition of the RINK RAP podcast posted, and it features a detailed breakdown of the first half of the season for the Rangers — a “mixed bag” as Sullivan referred to it. There’s plenty more there, including World Junior Championship, Winter Classic, and Milan/Cortina Olympics talk. Check it out on YouTube or you can click and listen below.
NHL news and rumors
NHL.com: Jon Cooper coaches his 1,000th NHL game — all with the Tampa Bay Lightning — when they visit the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. He shares his feelings about the achievement with Dan Rosen.
New Jersey Hockey Now: Oh boy. The free-falling Devils were called out by furious coach Sheldon Keefe after a 4-0 road loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Good job here by James Nichols with his postgame observations.
Sportsnet: Eric Francis breaks down the hows and whys of Devin Cooley’s contract extension with the Calgary Flames.
NHL.com: The roof opened at loanDepot Park as preparations continued for the 2026 Winter Classic between the Rangers and Florida Panthers on Friday. Nick Cotsonika takes you behind the scenes.
Daily Faceoff: Matthew Schaefer became the youngest defenseman in NHL history to reach 25 points, when he assisted on a Bo Horvat goal in the New York Islanders’ 3-2 shootout win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
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