With the Men’s Hockey tournament set to begin on Wednesday at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, I wanted to take a look at the Red Wings players who will be donning their national team jerseys and battling for gold. It’s been a long time since NHL players competed in a true best-on-best tournament like this one (12 years to be exact), and I for one am incredibly excited to see how it all plays out.
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Before the tournament begins, I want to make some bold predictions for how the Red Wings players who are attending in Milan will perform in this tournament, with a special bonus inadvisably-bold-super-prediction for each player.
Lucas Raymond – Team Sweden
My main prediction here is that Lucas Raymond will be Sweden’s leading scorer at the end of the tourney, helping to lead them to a bronze medal. Raymond has been excellent internationally throughout his career, and should be a massive piece of Sweden’s offense, especially on the power play.
In each of the past two World Championships, Raymond has had no trouble scoring with a combined 20 points in 20 games in two tournaments. Each of those times he has been within striking distance of the team lead in scoring so I think he can make it happen on hockey’s biggest stage.
Raymond is having an excellent season, on pace for his first point-per-game season with 60 points in 57 games leading up to the Olympic break. His 60 points actually leads all Swedish NHLers at this point, with Mika Zibanejad and William Nylander being tied for second with 52 points each.
Bonus Super Specific Prediction: Raymond will score 9 points in 6 games, including a 4 point game against Italy
Dylan Larkin – Team USA
Despite being deployed like a bottom-six player to begin the Four Nations Faceoff, Dylan Larkin ended up being one of the most important players for Team USA. He brought them into the fight and earned a lot of respect league-wide while doing so. Larkin is a long-time USA Hockey contributor, from his five appearances at the World Championships all the way back to his days in the NTDP.
My prediction here is that Larkin is going to score a game winning goal after the round robin has ended, meaning he will score a goal that keeps the Americans alive in the tourney. Larkin has a penchant for scoring big goals and is tied for the lead in overtime goals this season among players on Team USA (tied with Clayton Keller and JT Miller who all have 3 OTG).
Bonus Super Specific Prediction: Larkin scores the golden goal for Team USA in overtime
Moritz Seider – Team Germany
I predict that Moritz Seider will lead the Olympic tournament in ice time. He has the highest time on ice average for the Red Wings this season and is fourth in the NHL through the first two thirds of the season. However, I don’t think there is a team that will lean more heavily on a single defenseman than Germany.
The top two ice time players in the NHL this season are Quinn Hughes (27:52) and Zach Werenski (26:22), and while I’m sure they’ll both play a ton for Team USA, there are only so many minutes that they will play a left handed defender. The third leader in ice time is Miro Heiskanen, who averages a whopping 25:59 a night. Heiskanen will absolutely play a ton for Finland, but they have players like Rasmus Ristolainen and Mikko Lehtonen that will take some of that time away.
Team Germany, however, will rely on Seider heavily. He will play huge even strength minutes, will be a rock on the penalty kill, and likely play on the top power play unit as well. Germany has good players, with long-time national team mainstays like Jonas Müller and Moritz Müller on the team, but they have nobody who is in the same stratosphere as Seider and I think his usage will show that.
Bonus Super Specific Prediction: Seider will also end the tournament tied for the lead in points by a defender.
Eduards Tralmaks – Team Latvia
Eduards Tralmaks might not be a household name to every Red Wings fan, but he has begun to make a name for himself in Grand Rapids with the Griffins this season. The 28-year-old native of Riga, Latvia signed with the Red Wings in the offseason after scoring 51 points in 48 games in the top Czechian hockey league. He uses his big 6-foot-4 frame to his advantage and has made a name for himself as a bruising goal scorer. Tralmaks is on pace for 30 goals in the AHL this season and I think he will earn a lot of attention in the coming days for Latvia.
My prediction for Tralmaks is that he will score a goal against Team USA in their round robin match on Thursday. Tralmaks scored seven goals and 12 points in 17 international games last season for Latvia, but I think he’s got one more big goal in him this season.
Bonus Super Specific Prediction: Tralmaks’ goal against Team USA will be a late game-tying tally to really make the Americans sweat.
