FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The U.S. named Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy as its first six players for the 2026 Olympics, avoiding goaltenders on the initial roster unveiled Monday.

Some assortment of Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman and Thatcher Demko figure to make the team when full rosters are submitted in early January.

“Our goalies played well for us, great seasons: Connor just got the Vezina and Hart, which is incredible,” U.S. general manager Bill Guerin said on a video call with reporters. “It was just kind of the thing we talked that about before we did it for 4 Nations: Do we add a goalie, do we not add a goalie? I felt it was best we stay consistent and just let the goalies play it out during the season.”

All 12 teams that qualified — with France replacing Russia because of the International Olympic Committee’s ban on that country for team sports over the war in Ukraine — announced the start of their groups set to take part in Milan. This tournament marks the return of NHL participation and what should be the first Olympics for Canada’s Connor McDavid and many other top players who have not yet gotten that opportunity.

“Incredibly honored to represent my country at the biggest sporting event in the world,” McDavid said after he and the Edmonton Oilers practiced during the Stanley Cup Final. “You think of the Canadian players that can be named to that team and to be selected again, it means a lot.”

McDavid would have been there had the NHL not pulled out of the 2022 Beijing Games because of pandemic-related scheduling issues. Along with McDavid, Canada picked Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Brayden Point and Sam Reinhart, the latter of whom is also in the final with the defending champion Florida Panthers.

“When you’re growing up when you’re watching as a kid, it’s Stanley Cup Finals and it’s Team Canada,” Reinhart said. “Those are the two things that you dream about playing for. To have that opportunity is pretty exciting.”

Three other Panthers players — Aleksander Barkov for Finland, Nico Sturm for Germany and Uvis Balinskis for Latvia — are penciled in for Milan. Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl headlines the list for Germany, which reached the final in 2018 when the NHL skipped the Olympics.

“There’s not a lot of elite centermen in the league: I think Leon is in that category, Sasha [Barkov is] in that category,” Sturm said. “Big left-handed centermen that you can model your game after. He’s definitely somebody that I look up to a lot and try to learn from.”

Obviously, much can change over the next eight months, from injuries to performance, and this process with the IOC and International Ice Hockey Federation follows what the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland did in naming six initial players last summer for the 4 Nations Face-Off that was a massive success in February.

“I understand it from a marketing perspective to get things up and running,” Canada GM Doug Armstrong said. “We probably had a wide berth of players we could have named, but it is what it is. I think it’s consistent with the 4 Nations and the event before, so we’re OK doing. As I said to someone: ‘I think the easy part’s behind us, these six. Now it gets interesting as we fill out that roster.'”

Sweden chose forwards Gabriel Landeskog, Lucas Raymond, William Nylander and Adrian Kempe and defensemen Victor Hedman and Rasmus Dahlin. Finland picked Barkov, fellow skaters Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell and goaltender Juuse Saros.

This is Barkov’s second Olympics after being in Sochi in 2014. That was as a young, part-time player.

“That was my dream as a kid to be there, and I got to experience that for a little bit for two games,” Barkov said. “Now, to be named again is a huge honor. I’m really, really happy and honored and thankful for that opportunity.”

Much of the reaction to the roster release on social media had to do with Russia not taking part. That means all-time leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin, MVP finalist Nikita Kucherov and two-time Cup-winning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy will not get the chance to go to Milan.

“It’s disappointing that they’re not in this event, but it’s certainly nothing that the participants in the event can control,” Armstrong said. “You have to play the teams that are on your schedule, and unfortunately this time around the Russians won’t be there.”

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The Edmonton Oilers, facing elimination against the Florida Panthers in Game 6 on Tuesday night, have flipped back to Stuart Skinner as their starting goalie.

Skinner was pulled in Games 3 and 4 in Florida and was benched in favor of backup Calvin Pickard in their Game 5 loss in Edmonton that gave the Panthers a 3-2 series lead.

“Feeling good coming into tonight. I definitely know that I have the confidence in my teammates and coaching staff,” Skinner said after Edmonton’s morning skate. “I think there’s obviously a lot of belief here still.”

Skinner was benched after the first period in Game 4, having given up three goals on 17 shots. Pickard stopped 22 of 23 shots as the Oilers won in overtime to even the Stanley Cup Final at 2-2. Pickard got the start in Game 5 in Edmonton, giving up four goals on 18 shots in a 5-2 loss, which put Florida in a position to raise their second straight Stanley Cup over the Oilers.

Skinner was also pulled in the third period of their Game 3 blowout loss in Florida after giving up five goals on 23 shots. He said it was hard watching Edmonton play from the bench over the past three games.

“My job is to stop the puck when I’m told to go in the net. Sometimes I get told that I’m not [in the net]. For sure, it’s disappointing,” Skinner said. “I’ve just got to stick to what my job is. [Those decisions] are over my pay grade. Whenever they tell me to go on the net, I’m definitely not going to say ‘no.'”

Knoblauch said after Game 5 that “there’s no fault at Calvin at all on any of those goals.” But with their season on the line, the Oilers coach decided to go back to Skinner.

“Stu has been in a lot of high-pressure games. He’s played really well,” Knoblauch said. “We looked at the amount of elimination games he’s played in. I think there were six last year. Every game that he played in, they were really solid if not spectacular performances. So, season on the line, we’ve got a lot of confidence in him.”

Three of those elimination games came against the Panthers, who failed to close out Edmonton in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final after building a 3-0 series lead, needing to win in Game 7 to hoist the Cup for the first time as a franchise. Skinner was great in their Game 6 win in Edmonton, stopping 20 of 21 shots to force a winner-take-all game.

He’s trying to repeat that feat one year later and extend the Stanley Cup Final to a seventh game back in Edmonton on Friday night.

“He’s amazing in the playoffs and had incredible games this year. There’s just a trust factor that we know that he can get the job done for us,” Oilers star Leon Draisaitl said. “In Game 4, he was amazing in the first period. It was us that let him down. It doesn’t seem fair, right? So, we have full belief in him.”

Skinner, 26, was the Oilers’ primary starter in the regular season with a 26-18-4 record in 51 games and was their starter to begin the first round against the Los Angeles Kings. But after giving up 11 goals in the first two games of the series, he was replaced as starter by 33-year-old backup Pickard, who has played for six NHL teams in 10 seasons. Pickard went 6-0 until an injury in the second round against Vegas gave Skinner the starting job again.

Overall, Pickard is 7-1 with a .886 save percentage and a 2.85 goals-against average. Skinner is 7-6 with a .891 save percentage and a 2.99 goals-against average.

In other Oilers lineup changes, defenseman John Klingberg draws in for defenseman Troy Stecher, while forward Kasperi Kapanen replaces winger Viktor Arvidsson up front.

The Panthers have struggled with closing out opponents over their past two runs to the Stanley Cup Final. They needed seven games to eliminate Edmonton last year. They lost Game 6 at home against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round and lost Game 4 at home in the Eastern Conference Final to Carolina. In both instances, they eliminated their opponent in the following game.

“We’re going to have to do a great job of matching their desperation,” defenseman Seth Jones said. “At the same time, we go into every series planning on playing seven games. We want to approach each game the same as the one before and that’s what we’re going to do tonight.”

Could this be the start of something more?

That question could be asked of both the Anaheim Ducks and the New York Rangers after the first major trade this offseason. On Thursday, the Rangers sent Chris Kreider and a 2025 fourth-round pick (Anaheim’s own, previously acquired in the December 2024 Jacob Trouba trade) to the Ducks for center prospect Carey Terrance and a 2025 third-round pick (Toronto’s, acquired in the Feb. 2024 Ilya Lyubushkin trade).

Here’s a glance at what this means for both franchises along how they each performed.

There was a need to create salary cap space. There were the questions about production. There was also the fact that the Rangers could find a replacement elsewhere.

All told, there were many reasons that influenced the Rangers’ decision to move on from Chris Kreider.

Kreider scored 20 or more goals for the seventh straight season and for the 10th time in his career. That consistency is what came to define Kreider, but it became one of the reasons a move out of New York seemed likely.

Kreider turned 34 in late April, at the end of a season in which he scored 22 goals; however, that was a decline from what he had done the past three years. He scored 36 or more goals in each of the last three seasons, while averaging 69 points per campaign in that time. He finished with 30 points in 68 games this season, for a 0.44 points-per-game average.

With two years left on his contract worth $6.5 million annually, it became a numbers game for the Rangers.

Star goaltender Igor Shesterkin signed a new contract that starts in 2025-26 that ramps up his annual salary from $5.67 million to $11.50 million. There were also the series of in-season trades that Rangers GM Chris Drury made to get Will Borgen and J.T. Miller that led to them taking on an additional $12.1 million per year; Borgen signed a five-year extension worth $4.1 million annually, and Miller is entering the second of a seven-year pact in which he’ll earn $8 million annually.

This left the Rangers needing to find solutions to address a seven-player restricted free agent class led by K’Andre Miller, Zac Jones, Matthew Robertson, and Will Cuylle.

That’s not to say there aren’t questions about how they’ll replace Kreider’s production.

It’s what made the spring signing of Boston College star winger Gabe Perreault important, because it gives the Rangers a potential top-six option on a team-friendly deal, while allowing them to create the necessary space to address that RFA class — on top of everything else they may seek to achieve this offseason.

The Rangers now have $14.922 million in cap space after shedding Kreider’s contract, per PuckPedia. That provides the front office with more financial flexibility than it initially possessed, with the notion it might not be done.

Adding Terrance, who signed with the Ducks in April, brings a center prospect to a system that appeared to need one. Their strongest prospect down the middle, Noah Laba, signed with the club after three seasons at Colorado College, while Dylan Roobroeck’s first full professional campaign included 20 goals in the AHL.

Terrance, who was a second-round pick in 2023, had his third straight 20-goal season for the OHL’s Erie Otters; overall, he finished with 39 points in 45 games. He also represented Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championships, where he had two goals in seven games before sustaining an injury.

Rebuilds are all about ending up in a better place, with the notion that all of them take a different path to reach that desired destination. The Kreider trade is a signal that the Ducks are remaining steadfast in an approach that has served them well so far, with the belief it could lead to them either reaching the playoffs or at least be in the wild-card discussion in 2025-26.

For all the conversations about how they have drafted and developed, the Ducks have also made a concerted effort to insulate that homegrown young core with respected veterans. It’s a veteran group that includes Radko Gudas, Alex Killorn, Frank Vatrano, and Krieder’s former Rangers teammate Jacob Trouba.

So what does this mean for the Ducks’ top-nine winger setup? Kreider adds to a group that has Sam Colangelo, Cutter Gauthier, Troy Terry, Killorn, and Vatrano. Not only does it provide the Ducks with goal scorers in general, but also with players who can grab those goals in a variety of ways.

And this is what makes the Ducks either fascinating — or terrifying — depending upon the perspective. Ducks GM Pat Verbeek just took on a forward with a $6.5 million cap hit, and PuckPedia projects he still has more than $32.188 million in available space.

This is what could make Katella Avenue a destination come free agency on July 1.

Of course, Verbeek must act responsibly. Lukas Dostal, Drew Helleson and Mason McTavish, who are part of the Ducks’ young core, are each pending RFAs that need a new contract. Then there’s what lies ahead next offseason, when Leo Carlsson, Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov, Trevor Zegras, Olen Zellweger, and Gauthier will all need new deals at the same time.

Possessing that much young talent on cheap contracts creates financial flexibility. It’s why they were able to add Kreider for the price of a draft pick and a prospect in Terrance, who was expendable because of their center situation in the NHL and Lucas Pettersson, their second-round pick in 2024, in the system.

Ever since their rebuild started, the Ducks have been a franchise that’s been about trying to make progress by any means necessary. They’ve developed one of the NHL’s most promising farm systems in that time, and cultivated an expectation for their prospects. All the while, they’ve known when to make the moves like the one that got them Kreider.

Now what?

Finishing with 80 points for the first time since the 2018-19 season has them at a critical point. It’s part of the reason why they moved on from head coach Greg Cronin after two seasons to hire Joel Quenneville with the premise that they feel they can go further.

Because that’s what it means to play in the gauntlet that has become the Western Conference. For all the established contenders like the Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche, there are still other teams that can carve a path.

The Seattle Kraken did it in their second season back in 2022-23. A year later, the Vancouver Canucks did it in their first full season under Rick Tocchet in 2023-24. This season saw the St. Louis Blues return to the playoffs, while the Calgary Flames and Utah Hockey Club pushed until the latter stages of the regular season.

Anaheim finished 16 points out of the final Western Conference wild-card spot. But the gradual improvement the Ducks have shown — along with the fact they have made two of the bigger moves this offseason, believing they could do more — could see them knocking on the door to the postseason, or kicking right through it.