Updated 2026 USA Men's Hockey Team Projections After Provisional Roster Revealed

Even though the NHL season is barely a week old, the clock is ticking until the Olympics in Milan in February, and we're inching ever closer to seeing what the rosters will look like.

We already know who the first six players are for every team, and both the United States and Canada have had orientation camps for the players they're considering for the first best-on-best Olympic tournament since 2014. For Team USA, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Brady Tkachuk, Matthew Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy, and Quinn Hughes are on the team, and the rest is up for grabs.

Now, we have a full pool of players head coach Mike Sullivan, general manager Bill Guerin, and the rest of the brass will pick from.

Team USA is looking to win its first gold since the "Miracle on Ice" team in 1980, and it'll have the most talent it's ever had to make it happen.

We're going to take our best shot at devising the lines, pairings, and goalies now that we've a clearer idea of who the coaching staff will focus on.

First-Forward Line

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Jack Hughes, Auston Matthews

Jake Guentzel - Auston Matthews - Jack Hughes

Building a line around Auston Matthews is ideally pretty easy to do because it's essentially like trying to build a line for Sidney Crosby. Coincidentally, putting a forward that had a ton of success with Crosby in Jake Guentzel on Matthews' wing is the best thing to do.

Guentzel's ability to clean up loose pucks and score goals in and around the net makes him invaluable to the team. Having him play that role with a volume shooter like Matthews and an elite playmaker like Jack Hughes could make this trio a real nightmare for opponents to defend against.

Matthews will get all of the attention, rest assured, but with Guentzel and Hughes flanking him, it'll make for a real "frying pan or fire" kind of decision for defenders on who to zero in on. Shadowing any one player too closely opens things up for their linemates, and that equals goals for the U.S.

Second-Forward Line

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Jack Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk

Brady Tkachuk - Jack Eichel - Matthew Tkachuk

Putting the Tkachuk brothers together on a line evolved from a fun idea into a fully functional, great move for the United States during the Four Nations Face-Off. Putting Jack Eichel in between them to provide them a speedy center who can create made that trio a real pain in the rear for everyone.

Obviously, the health of both Brady and Matthew will be something to watch until the Olympics. Brady's hand injury will keep him sidelined for a significant period, and Matthew's recovery from surgery will also keep him out of action until December or January. As fun as they are to have out there, they're both vital to Team USA's chances for gold.

At the very least, a healthy Eichel makes that line go, and while he can do a lot of damage on the scoreboard by himself, if he's got the Tkachuk brothers to run and gun with, it gives everyone a chance to enjoy the show they'll put on.

Third-Forward Line

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Matt Boldy and Dylan Larkin

Kyle Connor - Dylan Larkin - Matt Boldy

Sometimes, third lines are viewed as "checking lines," but that's not our approach here.

A trio of Connor, Larkin, and Boldy is our version of a run-and-gun line that has its own share of creative grit and lightning-fast ability to counterattack.

Connor took a little bit to get acclimated to the style and pace of Four Nations, but once he was locked in, he became dangerous all over the ice and particularly on the power play. The same could be said for Larkin, who, once he got going and earned a bit more trust from the coaches, thrived. That experience at Four Nations will go a long way for them in the Olympics.

Boldy is the youngest of the trio, but he was lights out from the get-go, earning his way to the Olympics with his performance there and throughout the rest of the season in Minnesota.

This line is our own creation, and it could be a lot of fun to run out there in real life.

Fourth-Forward Line

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Vincent Trocheck and Alex Tuch

J.T. Miller - Vincent Trocheck - Alex Tuch

The way we've set up this fourth line is to create a deeply annoying and frustrating group of forwards to match up against, who can also absolutely score a bunch of goals in any situation.

Miller's ruthless competitive nature and non-stop engine are essential qualities for the Olympics. With his teammate Trocheck by his side, their chemistry and similar play styles make them the ideal duo to start with. Trocheck is currently on LTIR, but his ability to win faceoffs and kill penalties makes him an ideal fourth liner if he's healthy.

At Four Nations, it was Chris Kreider in this role, and he's absolutely a candidate to be back at the Olympics again, particularly on this line, but we're going with Alex Tuch this time around because not only can he score goals in bunches, but he's proven to be an outstanding penalty killer and shorthanded threat over the past couple seasons.

Pairing Tuch with Miller and Trocheck creates a different dynamic than with Kreider. While Kreider is a bull around the net and can play a nasty physical game, Tuch's size, reach, and stickhandling ability provide a different nuance defensively and on the forecheck.

First-Pairing Defense

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Quinn Hughes

Jaccob Slavin - Quinn Hughes

This pairing may not make sense at first blush, but when you think about how brilliant Quinn Hughes is moving the puck and creating offense with his speed and puck-handling ability, and then recall how solid Slavin's all-around defensive ability is, it makes the picture a lot clearer.

Slavin wowed onlookers during the Four Nations Face-Off with his ability to help shut down opponents and make life miserable for the best players from around the world. Even though he's been doing this in Carolina for a while, witnessing it on that stage against those competitors really turned heads.

A healthy Quinn Hughes is a massive addition to the U.S. roster, and should he stay that way come Olympic time, it fundamentally changes the way they can attack the game throughout the entirety of the game.

Second-Pairing Defense

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Zach Werenski - Charlie McAvoy

Even though we're listing this pairing second, they may as well be a first pairing.

The brilliant all-around play of Werenski, matched with McAvoy's superb two-way play, would make this pairing a nightmare for opponents. Not only are they capable of shutting anyone down, they're both more than equipped to jump into the rush and create offensive chances and score goals as well.

Werenski was a Norris Trophy finalist last year for a reason, and McAvoy has been a Norris-level defenseman for years now. The collective maturity this pairing would have together works in their favor as well. We get that's a kind of wild thing to say, given they're both still relatively young, yet here they are among the NHL's best defensemen and roaming the ice for the United States.

Third-Pairing Defense

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Brock Faber

Adam Fox - Brock Faber

We're going unconventional for the third pairing. Usually, having two guys that shoot from the side playing on a defense pair doesn't work well because one of those two guys has to play on their off-hand side. However, when those two defensemen are a Norris winner like Adam Fox and a young phenom like Brock Faber, we think it can work out just fine.

We also understand that this leaves out at least a couple of high-quality left-handed shots from our starting six in the lineup, be they Lane Hutson, Jake Sanderson, Noah Hanifin, Luke Hughes, Zeev Buium, K'Andre Miller, or others. That said, leaving out one of Fox or Faber from our starting lineup seemed like even more madness.

Quinn Hughes' injury during Four Nations allowed Team USA to avoid having to make such hard decisions and allowed them to have an even split between left and right shots. Having such wealth on the blue line is a major strength for the U.S., but it doesn't make creating pairings any easier.

Goaltenders

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Connor Hellebuyck

Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman

The United States' depth in goal is absurd, and having the reigning Vezina Trophy and Hart Trophy winner as their No. 1 makes it even more ludicrous.

The starting job is Connor Hellebuyck's to lose, and if he's somehow outplayed by either Jake Oettinger or Jeremy Swayman headed into the Olympics, then that's even better for Team USA. We're not going to judge these guys based on the first few games of the season, but "settling" to pick this trio that also happened to be the three guys selected for Four Nations makes the most sense.

That's not to say that guys like Thatcher Demko, Dustin Wolf, Anthony Stolarz, Joey Daccord, Alex Lyon, or Spencer Knight can't do their best to try and unseat someone out of this group; however, it'll be a mountainous task to do so.