The Stanley Cup isn’t the only monster prize set to be claimed in 2026. Another is the Olympic gold medal, with Milan set to open its doors to the winter sporting world in a few weeks. Not only will the iconic Italian city be doing that, but it will also be welcoming a new major player from the betting world.
That is the highly anticipated Ozoon Sports Canada website, a site that will be rolling out its sports betting offering to coincide with the Winter Olympics getting underway. So, which Oilers are headed across the pond? Well, superstars Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Joshua Samanski are all confirmed for Canada and Germany, respectively. However, it’s the shock omissions that should be garnering the headlines.
Evan Bouchard
The numbers don’t lie, and Evan Bouchard’s numbers scream Olympic roster. Fifteen goals, 30 assists through 40 games—offensive production that puts him among the NHL’s elite defensemen this season. Yet when Team Canada unveiled its eight-man blue line, Bouchard’s name wasn’t on it. Instead, Canada went with Cale Makar, Drew Doughty, Thomas Harley, Josh Morrissey, Colton Parayko, Travis Sanheim, Shea Theodore, and Devon Toews. The message was clear: Canada wanted size, snarl, and shutdown ability over Bouchard’s freewheeling offensive creativity.
Bouchard’s momentary defensive lapses ultimately sank his hopes of representing his country on the grandest stage. For a 26-year-old trying to shake that reputation, watching Canada prioritize defensive reliability over his 45-point pace feels like being told he’ll never be trusted when it matters most.
Zach Hyman
Fifty goals last season. Let that sink in—50 goals in an era where scoring 40 makes you an elite finisher. Yet Zach Hyman is sitting home while Team Canada loads up on forwards like Macklin Celebrini, Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, Bo Horvat, Brad Marchand, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, Nick Suzuki, and Tom Wilson. The official reason? Injury concerns. Hyman missed chunks of this season rehabbing the wrist surgery he needed after last year’s playoff grind.
But here’s the thing—he’s back now, producing, grinding, doing all the dirty work that supposedly wins Olympic gold. Hockey Canada instead looked at Hyman’s resume and decided Tom Wilson’s physicality and Mark Stone’s two-way dominance were safer bets. Never mind that Hyman’s chemistry with Connor McDavid is the stuff of highlight reels. Unfortunately, that spectacular double act won’t be on the ice for all the world to see in Milan.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is the guy who does everything right and gets nothing for it. Solid two-way play. Can center or wing. Kills penalties. Runs the power play. Logs heavy minutes without complaint. He’s the Swiss Army knife every coach claims to love—until it’s time to pick an Olympic roster and flashier names start looking more appealing.
Canada went with Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and a supporting cast built around proven stars and emerging phenoms like 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini. Nugent-Hopkins never stood a chance. He’s too versatile for his own good—competent at everything, exceptional at nothing that shows up on SportsCenter. That might be the cruelest part—being so reliably excellent that your absence doesn’t even qualify as shocking.
When you’re perpetually the “also considered” guy on a roster with only 25 spots, eventually you stop expecting the call. He’s the organizational soldier Canada loves having around but never quite trusts enough to deploy when the whole world’s watching.
Mattias Ekholm
Mattias Ekholm has played over 900 NHL games with a plus-192 rating and is still averaging 20:44 of ice time per night at age 35. None of that mattered when Sweden named its Olympic roster and left him off it. Coach Sam Hallam called it one of the toughest decisions he’s ever made —but that doesn’t change the fact that Ekholm played in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February, then watched 18 of those same teammates get Olympic invites while he got nothing.
Sweden chose Rasmus Andersson, Philip Broberg, Jonas Brodin, Rasmus Dahlin, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Gustav Forsling, Victor Hedman, and Erik Karlsson instead. Broberg—Ekholm’s former teammate in Edmonton, who’s just 25 years old, got the nod. So did Ekman-Larsson, who’s been a salary cap albatross for years. Hallam tried to soften the blow by praising Sweden’s defensive depth, saying “our D-core is so good” that impossible choices had to be made.
But Ekholm knows what this really means: at 35, Sweden decided his best hockey is behind him. He’ll never get another Olympic chance. He said as much himself, calling the Olympics “right up there with the Stanley Cup” in terms of importance. The timing is vicious—he’s still playing top-pairing minutes for Edmonton, still quarterbacking the power play, still doing everything Sweden claims to value. Yet they went younger, flashier, more offensive. Swedish hockey Twitter exploded over the snub, but that doesn’t give Ekholm back what he’s lost: one final shot at representing his country on the sport’s biggest stage.
