Ranking Every Hockey Jersey at the 2026 Olympics

The Winter Olympics are underway in Milan-Cortina, Italy, and the men's hockey begins on Wednesday with the preliminary round.

While the women's event is already off and running, we're getting revved up for the men's tournament by getting a look at what everyone will be wearing once the matches get underway.

While we've been able to rank some of these out as we impatiently waited for the Olympics to arrive, we now know what all the teams will be wearing, and our opinions have only become bolder.

There are 12 countries taking part in the men's tournament, so we'll count them down from No. 12 to No. 1 and highlight the countries that didn't really bring the appropriate fashion thunder to the Games. Look good, play good after all, right?

12. France

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Lore Baudrit

Mon dieu.

We're not sure what Nike and France were cooking up for their jerseys at the Olympics this year, but they either forgot to turn on the stove or let it sit on the burner way too long.

The French men's and women's teams, like most countries, are wearing the same jerseys, and seeing them in action during women's games hasn't helped our opinion on them at all.

This style is different, but it's also terrible. What's worse is that France used to rock a unique look and one that was very much its own. After all, who else rocks a rooster for a logo?

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It can be much more difficult for countries to come up with a unique look or crest for their uniforms, but France has it, but not at these Olympics.

Instead, these avant-garde parallel lines and wordmark are such a letdown.

11. Italy

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We haven't seen Italy in Olympic hockey very often. The last time was at the 2006 Games in Torino, Italy, when former NHLers Tony Tuzzolino and Jason Muzzatti were on the team.

Since host countries automatically get to be part of the fun, Italy is back and so are the beautiful blues that make them the Azzurri.

Italy's national soccer team is famous for wearing beautiful blue shirts, even though the national flag is red, white, and green, and the flag also influences the simple design of their jerseys for these Olympics. As shown by the women's team, Italy's blue jersey is still stunning in color, but the overall design is fairly lacking.

Italy doesn't often get to take part in these kinds of hockey games, and its national men's team is currently 18th in the world (the women are 17th) and in the second division internationally.

If they can win their way out of Division I-A and into the Championship level, they can duke it out with all the teams they'll meet during the Olympics and World Championships, and maybe get a cooler Olympic jersey in the future.

For now, these are fine, just nothing too exciting.

10. Canada

We're not here to hate on Canada because it's probably going to win the gold medal and this our way to get some cheap shots in. No, that's not it at all.

These Canadian jerseys are bad.

Think of all the classic looks Canada has had over the years and how genuinely awesome they were, and how iconic those looks became because of the all-time legends who played in them, many of whom went on to win gold medals.

And now compare those jerseys to what Canada is wearing this year, and you understand what we mean.

The massive, modernized Iron Man-like maple leaf is going way too hard and not in a fun way. The stripe around the hem doesn't even go all the way around the waist. The black jersey seems way out of place, too. Even the simplicity of the white sweater is swallowed up by the size of the crest.

It's too much and too busy. It's also too bad we'll see so much of it when Canada wins the tournament.

9. Switzerland

The Swiss always have it tough when trying to come up with a great looking jersey for hockey. Their flag is red with a white cross, and it tends to trip up a lot of Americans thinking it's a flag for the American Red Cross.

However, Swiss hockey has made a point of using black accents, turning the cross into a shield for a full-blown crest, and it looks pretty sweet.

There were years in the past when the word mark (Suisse) or a more inventive use of the Swiss flag symbol was used, but turning it into a crest shield is by far the best way to do it. What also helps is how hard the Swiss play and how difficult they make it for teams of all skill levels to get past them.

Switzerland will be rough to go up against. They've got Roman Josi, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Kevin Fiala, Nino Niederreiter, and J-J Moser among others to contend with. Talent and solid jerseys? You take that every time.

8. Latvia

It's hard for maroon and white to look bad in hockey and fortunately for Latvia, its jerseys do not look bad at all.

The crest is majestic, the true Latvian spelling of the country, the numbers all look great. The hem stripes and the quirky shoulder stripe (?) that makes room for the numbers on the sleeves, though, what's going on there?

If there's something about the way Latvia looks, it's that it matches the way it plays: hard. Any time a team goes into a game against Latvia, it's almost always in for a fight of some kind.

Latvia plays hard and tough, and it's usually got the goaltending to make even the best teams in the world sweat things out.

It's a classic look, and we're always here to appreciate it. We just wish some of the more modernized touches were left out.

7. Czechia

The Czechs just always look good, and they look better when they're keeping things simple.

The Czech jerseys for the Olympics are heavily Nike-template-based, but they also allow the national crest to do all the heavy lifting.

The crest is gorgeous and has been part of the Czech identity for the past 30 years. It looks somewhat medieval but comes through with all the pride the players have for their country.

When we get to see David Pastrňák, Martin Nečas, and Lukáš Dostál take the ice and show why they should've been part of the Four Nations Face-Off/World Cup of Hockey a year ago, they'll do it bearing the Czech national colors and a crest that you cannot mistake as belonging to anyone else.

6. Finland

The Finland jerseys have grown on us a bit since they were unveiled in November, but they haven't totally won us over.

The stylized lion taking center stage rules and looks awesome. I mean, it's a lion wearing a crown and wielding swords. It's enough to be an icon for a metal album.

Finland's use of various shades of blue and white allows it to have fun with its national colors from the flag, while the lighter sky blue and dark navy blue give the look some contrast without straying from the color palette.

The stripe band that wraps around the jersey and sits underneath the lion takes away from the look because there's some design influence there that makes the patterns jump out in front of the lion, reminding us of a checkbox from previous iterations of Windows.

That's about as picky as we'll get about something for a jersey that, for the most part, looks really solid. Like their rival counterparts in Sweden, there's no mistaking who the Finns are when they're out there, and that's really what you're aiming for in international hockey.

5. Sweden

It's impossible to dislike Sweden's jerseys, but we can have a nitpick here or there this time around.

The Swedes' iconic blue and gold jerseys with the "Tre Kronor" crest are as good as it gets in international hockey. The simple sleeve stripes are good and there is no mistaking who is on the ice, especially when they're wearing the gold jerseys.

The navy blue color, however, is a bit of a departure from the lighter shade of blue they have used to use in years past. Even though gold is bright, having such a dark blue to go with it somehow makes it all look darker. We know, it doesn't really make sense, but here we are getting our dander up about it.

Nitpick or not, the Swedes are going to be good. At least they should be with Victor Hedman, Rasmus Dahlin, Erik Karlsson, Filip Forsberg, Adrian Kempe and the rest of their NHL-loaded squad.

4. United States

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Jack and Quinn Hughes

Instead of trying something new and funky and leaning hard into the more modern whims of what Nike does with its hockey jerseys, the United States went back to the past for arguably the best-looking set of jerseys it's ever had.

The U.S. is rolling out blue-and-white jerseys that pay homage to the 1960 Olympic Valley team that won gold. The blue jerseys are the right, brighter shade of blue, and the white jerseys have blue shoulders. There's a USA shield on the front shoulder of both jerseys, which helps make the look classic.

Calling back to that 1960 team, the first U.S. side to win gold at the Olympics, is a great tie-in and a motivation for the current stars as they look to win the first gold for the United States in men's hockey since 1980's "Miracle on Ice" team.

3. Germany

Prost! If seeing these German jerseys makes you want to crush a huge soft pretzel and pour out a beer in a stein as big as your head, you're not alone.

The German flag colors don't normally lend themselves to great colors for sports, but that's where the beauty of hockey can make all things happen.

Not only can the Germans make black, gold and red look nice, but it can also make us think about the classic Vancouver Canucks teams from the 1980s and 1990s as well.

Germany won't be pushovers in the Olympics with Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle, Moritz Seider and J-J Peterka manning the ice and Philipp Grubauer in goal, so that puts them ahead of this year's Canucks at the least. But this is also the progress the country has made in improving its hockey program over the years and the results are showing through now.

But having stars like that wearing jerseys like these? That's reason enough to be excited to see how they play.

2. Denmark

Oh, the Danes have crushed it.

A stylized lion is popular among European teams, and Denmark is no different. Its lion, in a pose with a stylized black stripe running behind it, paired with a red jersey and white shoulders, just pops in all the right ways.

The black stripe also serves as the stripes on the sleeves, giving the look a common, ahem, thread that ties it all together. That it gives off a kind of tire-tread appearance may be foretelling for how well the Danes do at the Olympics. But even when the colors are reversed on their white jersey, it's just as good.

What Denmark lacks in overall NHL-level talent (Nikolaj Ehlers, Frederik Andersen, Oliver Bjorkstrand, and Lars Eller are the standouts), it will more than make up for with how great its uniforms are.

1. Slovakia

It does not get better than this at the Olympics this year.

Slovakia already has one of the best national hockey symbols: the Slovak coat of arms, which adorns the country's flag. Using that as the crest and involving the Tatra Mountains as the background for it, that's worked in with the country flag coloring, it's perfect.

The Slovaks may not have the roster to help produce a gold medal, but they were able to secure a bronze at the 2022 Olympics and have some fun young players like Juraj Slafkovský, Šimon Nemec, and Dalibor Dvorsky. With captain Tomas Tatar, they'll be a scrappy team during these Games.

But if success doesn't find them on the ice, they'll be by far the best-looking team throughout the Olympics based on their jerseys.