Finland have announced their 25-man ice hockey squad nominated for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, which will see the return of National Hockey League (NHL) players to the Olympic tournament.
Although they named their first six players on the preliminary roster in June, one of them — Aleksander Barkov — has been ruled out for the season due to injury and has therefore not been included on the 25-strong squad.
There is a strong NHL contingent, with 24 of the 25 playing in the NHL. The other man is defenceman Mikko Lehtonen, who has NHL experience with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets in 2020–21. Lehtonen is also the only returning member of the Beijing 2022 gold-medal-winning team.
Other returning Olympians include Eeli Tolvanen and Miro Heiskanen (PyeongChang 2018) and Olli Määttä and Mikael Granlund (Sochi 2014 bronze).
It also includes four players from the Dallas Stars and three from the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers (not including Barkov), which should help ease the transition from NHL to national team play.
Finland have competed in men’s hockey at the Winter Olympics 18 times, with Milano Cortina 2026 being the team’s 19th appearance. The team’s debut was at Oslo 1952.
They are defending champions from Beijing 2022, having won gold for the first time in Beijing; Finland have also won two silvers and four bronzes.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Winter Games, athletes’ participation at Milano Cortina 2026 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at the Games.