The 2026 Winter Olympics have moved along quickly, and while women’s hockey will play for the gold medal on Thursday, Feb. 19, with Canada and USA, the men’s will start their qualifiers on Tuesday, Feb. 17, with the quarterfinals the following day, Wednesday, Feb. 18.
Canada, USA, Slovakia, and Finland all earned byes to the quarterfinals and awaited their competition. The Minnesota Wild have players already through to the quarterfinals with USA, while their other Olympians had to win their way through with Sweden and Germany. In this article, we’ll look at how the Wild’s Olympians are doing, starting with their lone German, Nico Sturm.
Sturm’s Representing Germany
The majority of the Wild’s Olympians are from two countries, except for Nico Sturm, who’s their only player from Germany. While many don’t consider Germany one of the teams that will contend for a medal, they still have quite a bit of talent on their roster, even if only six of them are NHL players. Wild fans already know about Sturm, but his teammate is one of the best in the NHL, Leon Draisaitl.
They also have JJ Peterka, Tim Stützle, Moritz Seider, and Philipp Grubauer, all of whom have made themselves quite known in the NHL. Germany didn’t have the easiest time in the preliminaries as they fell to both Latvia and USA, but they did take down Denmark. They had to find a way past France in the qualifiers to make it to the quarterfinals, and they did just that.
Germany had a strong chance to make it past France, who had yet to win a game in this year’s tournament. They needed Draisaitl and Stützle, who led Germany in points, to step up if they wanted to get the win, and they did, along with Sturm, who sealed the 5-1 win with an empty net goal to earn a spot in the quarterfinals against Slovakia.
Wild’s Swedish Quartet
Outside of USA, the only other country to have multiple Wild players on their roster is Sweden, with four players. Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Johansson, Filip Gustavsson, and Jesper Wallstedt are all on Sweden’s roster. Gustavsson had a bit of a rough start to his Olympics as he went for a poke check and accidentally threw his stick, which led to a goal against Sweden. He stepped up after that and helped his team win, but it wasn’t an easy beginning.
He’s been in the net for two of Sweden’s three games, with Jacob Markstrom taking the other game, while Wallstedt backed up, who hasn’t gotten in the net just yet. Eriksson Ek has been in every game and has a shorthanded goal that helped them get past Slovakia. Johansson has played in one game but hasn’t been able to contribute any points yet. It’s hard to say if he’ll play in the qualifying round or not.
Sweden is going to need everyone to step up if they want to make it past Latvia, whom played USA pretty tough. Although it didn’t end the way Latvia wanted, they played strong and it won’t be easy for Sweden. It’ll be interesting to see who steps up and if they can get into the quarterfinals, where USA and several Wild teammates wait.
USA Secures Quarterfinals
The final team with Wild players on their roster is USA who won their way past the qualifying round and into the quarterfinals. Matt Boldy, Quinn Hughes, and Brock Faber got one step closer to a medal as they helped their team sweep the preliminary round 3-0. They had some close calls in the first period of each game, but they found their play later and pulled away by the end of each game.
While he played into the social media talk of seeing ghosts, Hughes has been leading in points for Wild players on USA with four assists. Both Boldy and Faber have shone as well, just not quite as productive as Hughes. Boldy did score a wrap-around goal in their win over Denmark, while Faber scored a goal in their win over Germany.
USA will get some well-needed rest while they await the winner of Sweden and Latvia. Both teams are talented, and if they take on Sweden, Faber and Hughes will have their hands full trying to move Eriksson Ek away from their goaltender. It’ll be interesting to see who wins and who USA will have to face.
Wild Honorable Mentions
While they aren’t on the Wild’s roster just yet, there are a couple of players who’ve made impressions in the Olympics that could earn them a spot. The first player is Slovakia’s goaltender, Samuel Hlavaj, who helped his team secure their spot in the quarterfinals as he was in net for their first and third wins of the preliminaries. He was very impressive and was all anyone could talk about for Slovakia aside from his teammate Juraj Slafkovský, of course.
The other player is David Spacek, who played in all three of Czechia’s preliminary games and tallied an assist in their lone win. Czechia had a rather tough go in the preliminary round, similar to Germany, but they’ll have a chance to make it to the quarterfinals if they can get past Denmark.
Related: Wild Week Ahead: ‘Hockey Without Limits’ Camp, Back to Practice & Olympics Update
There’s still a lot of hockey to be played and medals to hand out, and it’ll be interesting to see which teams make it all the way. The Wild have a number of players hoping to come home with a medal, and it’s going to be fun to see which team and players come back with a gold.
