For the first time in 12 years, National Hockey League players participated in the Olympic men’s hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. The tournament was excellent, despite Martin Pospisil being the lone Calgary Flames representative – and unfortunately falling just shy of coming home with a medal.

In four years, NHLers will return to the tournament when the Olympics head to the French Alps. Which Flames players may be taking part?

Dustin Wolf will be 28 in 2030. He’s one of 23 American-born goaltenders who’s played in the NHL in 2025-26, and actually leads all American netminders in appearances and starts. He was one of the NHL’s top netminders, regardless of passport in his rookie season (2024-25) and so you cannot rule out him building a body of work that lands him on the national team, similar to how Jake Oettinger has progressed in Dallas.

Similarly, Matt Coronato has played for the United States at the World Juniors and World Championships, and he’s shown the ability to pile up goals. He’ll be 27 in 2030 and he could work his way into the national team conversation.

Slovakia doesn’t have a ton of NHLers on their national team, so merely being an NHLer will get a player a lot of consideration for a spot. Sam Honzek probably would’ve made the national team had he not been injured in November, while Martin Pospisil made the national team and played at the Olympics. Honzek will be 25 in 2030, while Pospisil will be 30.

We’ll admit it: we’re a bit shocked that Adam Klapka didn’t make the Czech national team this time around. He’s big. He’s smart. He uses his size really intelligently. In 2030, he’ll be 29 and we suspect he’ll be firmly on their radar, especially after they left him back in Calgary… and then failed to medal.

So the elephant in the room at the 2026 Olympics was the non-presence of Russia and Belarus. There was a good reason for that: their continuing invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

Should Russia and Belarus end their invasion of Ukraine, then we suspect they would be allowed to return to the Olympics in 2030. Should that happen, Matvei Gridin (23 in 2030), Yan Kuznetsov (27 in 2030) or Yegor Sharangovich (31 in 2030) could be appearing.

This article is a presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family-owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the industry-leading 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty. Check out their showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca.

The Mitsubishi Motors lineup includes the industry-leading Outlander and Outlander PHEV, as well as the compact Eclipse Cross and RVR models. New for February, take advantage of available 0% financing for up to 84 months on all in-stock 2025 Outlander PHEVs! Check out Platinum’s inventory here.