Jordan Binnington will prove once again to be the greatest goalie on Earth.

A debate is about to break out over who is the best women’s player in the world.

Czechia will return to Olympic glory.

Those were among the responses The Athletic got this week when it asked its hockey staff for their bold predictions for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

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Here are some prognostications from writers, with puck drop around the corner.

Czechia plays for a medal in the men’s tournament

Goaltending is the great equalizer in a single-elimination tournament. The goalie is the only player on the ice who can truly singlehandedly narrow the talent gap between countries. In Sochi, little-known Latvian goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis put quite a scare into Canada — now considered perhaps the best hockey team ever assembled — with a superhuman performance, making 55 saves. The game was tied 1-1 until late in the third period, when Shea Weber finally scored on a power play, allowing Canada to escape with a 2-1 victory in the quarterfinals. Lukáš Dostál is far more accomplished than Gudlevskis and is capable of stealing a game or two. He’ll knock off one of the Big Four in the quarterfinal, which will put Czechia in one of the medal games. — Mark Lazerus

Czechia returns to glory in the men’s tournament

Back in the old days, Czechia was one of the top hockey powers, headlined by a generational duo of Jaromir Jagr and Dominik Hasek. The Czechs have fallen from their gold medal heights in 1998, but appear to be a nation back on the rise. What this current version lacks in quality depth (just 11 NHL players), it makes up for in star power (David Pastrnak, Martin Necas) and potentially strong goaltending. It’s the latter that gets Czechia back on the podium. — Dom Luszczyszyn

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A debate for the world’s best women’s hockey player emerges

Marie-Philip Poulin is the current best player in women’s hockey, cementing that status with every gold she wins (and gold-winning goal she scores) with Canada. But that debate could be opened if Kendall Coyne Schofield keeps up her 2025-26 PWHL dominance and Team USA grabs gold this time around. While Poulin has been the better player the past two seasons (league-leading plus-12.4 Net Rating to Coyne Schofield’s plus-9.4), it’s her American counterpart that holds the edge in 2025-26. Coyne Schofield’s league-leading plus-5.1 Net Rating is backed by a PWHL-best 10 goals and 16 points in 15 games. That’s closed the gap in overall PWHL value; a big-time Olympics with a gold medal around Coyne Schofield’s neck could make it a real discussion. — Dom Luszczyszyn

Brianne Jenner runs it back

Think fast, and don’t look it up: Who was the MVP of the 2022 tournament? Was it Poulin, who’s approaching GOAT status in the sport? Hilary Knight, hands-down the best American player of her generation? Sarah Fillier? Sarah Nurse? Buzzers all around. It was Brianne Jenner — a player who spent a too-large chunk of her career operating in Poulin’s shadow and then, post-2022, struggled both in the PWHL and at World Championships. She’s having a bounce-back season for the Ottawa Charge, though, and seems capable (once again) of forcing her way past higher-profile stars. She might not have another nine-goal tournament, but I’d bet on her being a force. — Sean Gentille

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The American women lap the competition and don’t lose a game

The only thing that could derail the United States is overconfidence or a bad goaltending outing at the worst possible time. The U.S. proved during the 2025 Rivalry Series that it is younger, faster and better balanced than its rivals from Canada, which will be its chief competition. In a four-game sweep of Canada between Cleveland, Buffalo and Edmonton, the U.S. outscored Canada by a whopping 17 goals. While the Americans said all the right things after their fourth consecutive win, such as Knight calling themselves “underdogs” and Laila Edwards pointing out that the Olympics is a far different “battlefield,” it’s just hard to imagine any country defeating the Americans, let alone them not taking home gold. — Michael Russo

Quinn Hughes leads all Olympians in ice time and defensemen in points

Well, the ice time part isn’t exactly bold. Maybe not even the points part. But what many folks took for granted during the 4 Nations Face-Off when the United States came up one goal short to Canada in the championship is that the Americans played the tournament without the country’s most electric offensive defenseman, the injured one-man breakout that is Quinn Hughes. Nobody in the NHL has the puck on his stick more than Hughes, and what he has done for the Minnesota Wild offensively since his Dec. 14 arrival has been nothing short of extraordinary. Hughes should pile up points for the U.S. in the Olympics and help create a daunting power play for opposing penalty kills to extinguish. — Michael Russo

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Team USA’s rising stars steal the spotlight in the women’s tournament

In 2022, Fillier’s breakout performance for Team Canada was the story of the tournament. And on the other side of the gold medal matchup, Team USA was criticized for over-sheltering its up-and-coming talent. There was no smooth “changing of the guard” transition; it was an over-reliance on veterans instead of a balance between Team USA’s stalwarts and Olympic rookies. But it’s not 2022 anymore; there is so much rising talent on Team USA this time around, and a coaching staff that is more than willing to deploy them. So while Knight will rightfully get a lot of attention in her final Olympic Tournament, the story will be the young guns making an impact. It’s going to be the Abbey Murphy show up front, with Hannah Bilka earning a lot of recognition. And on the back end, with some Olympic experience under her belt (in a very limited role in 2022), Caroline Harvey is going to show that she is one of the most dynamic offensive defenders in the world. Edwards will become more of a household name, too, with her all-around game. It’s finally going to be a new era at the Olympic level. — Shayna Goldman

Rasmus Dahlin is Sweden’s MVP

Team Sweden is dealing with a lot of key injuries. Jonas Brodin and Leo Carlsson are out, and defensive snub Simon Edvinsson is now injured and can’t replace them. While Gabriel Landeskog and Victor Hedman (who only just recently returned for Tampa Bay) are expected to be back for the tournament, the real question is whether they will be healthy enough to play or truly make an impact. This opens the door to another defenseman getting the chance to step up: Dahlin. He really hasn’t had the chance to show what he can do in this type of setting, since he has never played at the Olympic level or in the NHL postseason. But considering how elite his all-around game has been on a Sabres team that struggled through a lot of ups and downs over the years, Dahlin should be able to amp things up even more on a star-studded roster. That could be the key to Sweden going on a real run here, especially with a disruptor such as Czechia pushing for a medal this year. — Shayna Goldman

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Sweden upsets to get on the women’s podium

Most players and pundits predict a Finland versus Czechia bronze medal match. And it’s a safe bet; that’s how it’s been at back-to-back women’s world championships. However, Sweden is a fun dark horse team to watch with an exciting young roster, headlined by Ohio State freshman Hilda Svensson, who has 44 points in 26 games. The Swedish team has suffered in international competition due to the women’s group format. So, the team would need to win Group B and upset either Finland or Czechia in the quarterfinals to make a real podium push. But these are supposed to be bold predictions, after all. — Hailey Salvian

U.S. men fight for bronze

If these are truly bold predictions, I’m going to say Team USA fails to make the Olympic gold medal game. They lost to Canada at 4 Nations and didn’t really tweak the roster in a way that appeals to me. But mostly I’m thinking about how Team USA won only a single game in 1998 when NHL players debuted at the Olympics. Almost 30 years later, as a Canadian, it’s funny to think about history repeating itself as NHL players make their return to the Olympic stage. I’ll be realistic and assume they at least make the bronze medal game this time around. — Hailey Salvian

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Jordan Binnington, the greatest goalie on Earth

“Goaltending is voodoo” is a very trite phrase. It is a very annoying phrase. It is also a very accurate phrase, and it may as well have been coined with Binnington in mind. The worse Binnington looks for the Blues — and as I write this, he has literally saved fewer goals than expected than any goaltender in the league, with a save percentage that’s one of the league’s worst — the better I believe he’ll play in Milan. That’s simply how it works. In 2014, Carey Price allowed three goals in five games. Put Binnington down for two. And if he stinks? You’re welcome, America. — Sean Gentille

Switzerland wins the bronze medal

There is legitimate star power on Team Switzerland with Roman Josi, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Kevin Fiala and others. But more importantly, there is team cohesion. Most of the players on this year’s team were also on the team that reached the 2024 IIHF men’s worlds final before losing to Czechia (a country that will also benefit from that experience). There is a shared experience of success there that could transfer to this tournament. Also, Switzerland’s non-NHL depth all play in the highly competitive Swiss NL. They are good players who might be unfamiliar to NHL fans but will play depth roles effectively. The big question is goaltending and whether the trio of Josi, J.J. Moser and Jonas Siegenthaler can carry the load on the back end. But in the grander scheme of Swiss hockey, there is a “Last Dance” feel to this team as some of their NHL stars begin to age with not much in the way of young talent coming through the pipeline. The world championship silver in 2024 was a big moment for Swiss hockey. This might be their last chance for a while to do something ever bigger. And a bronze at these best-on-best Olympics would definitely be much bigger. — Arpon Basu

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One of the biggest stories of the Olympics will be one we don’t find out about until later

All the lobbying that will go on between players in advance of this year’s trade deadline and free agency. NHL teams aren’t allowed to tamper, and while we can quibble about how strongly that rule is actually enforced, we know GMs can’t call up players who are under contract to another team and beg them to jump ship. But that rule doesn’t apply to players themselves, who’ll want to have conversations with the temporary teammates they’re spending all that time with. If that conversation happened to turn to how much fun it is to play for a certain team or in a certain market, well, that’s just some friendly banter, right? Sure … until a player from your favorite team comes back from Italy and suddenly seems to have his eye on a new home. Will any players receive any salesmanship talking points before they head over? Will any teams complain about their players being targeted? Would the league want to open a can of worms by doing anything about it? It would be interesting to find out. — Sean McIndoe

The Canada-USA rivalry sees more bad blood on the women’s side than on the men’s

Some of that is based on history — the women’s rivalry has been hockey’s best for the last decade or so. Some of it is familiarity, with the recent Rivalry Series still lingering. And some of it will be international experience. Remember, last year’s epic 4 Nations battle essentially came under NHL rules, while the Olympics is a different deal. The men will have to be careful to adjust, while the women already know the drill. Add it all up, and while we won’t see three fights in nine seconds, don’t be shocked if we see more scrums, trash talk and general nastiness from the women. — Sean McIndoe

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Matt Boldy is Team USA’s best offensive game breaker

Team USA is stacked with an elite blue line and strong goaltending. The big question for them, though, is whether they have enough elite offensive game breakers up front to outgun Canada, especially because they controversially left Jason Robertson and Cole Caufield at home. Jack Eichel is a two-way superstar, but he may not dominate offensively because of how daunting his defensive matchups could be, particularly if he’s matched against Connor McDavid or Nathan MacKinnon in any potential games against Canada. The Tkachuk brothers were a force at 4 Nations, but Matthew is coming off an injury and Brady has played well but isn’t filling the net offensively this season (14 goals in 34 games). Perhaps Auston Matthews, who has turned a corner since Christmas, becomes Team USA’s best offensive weapon, but I’m going to predict Boldy is the one who steps up. Boldy was really noticeable at 4 Nations, and he’s taken another step this season, on pace for 46 goals. Most importantly, I think Boldy’s combination of size, athleticism and high-end skill will translate well offensively in what will likely be a tight-checking tournament where space is hard to find. And since his defensive duties on the wing won’t be as demanding as Eichel’s and Matthews’, there’s extra reason to believe he can emerge as America’s best pure offensive game breaker at forward. — Harman Dayal

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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