2026 Winter Olympics
Landeskog to Captain Team Sweden at Winter Olympics?
It’s sounding more like Avalanche captain and Swedish Olympian Gabe Landeskog will captain Team Sweden at the upcoming Milano Cortina games.
There hasn’t been an official announcement from the Swedish front office, but that could be because of his current health status. Landeskog has not played since crashing into the goal post in a game against the Florida Panthers on Jan. 4. He’s missed the last 12 Avalanche games, and it’s still unclear if he’ll be healthy enough to play.
Although Pierre LeBrun of TSN believes Landeskog will be there — even if he doesn’t dress for Monday or Wednesday’s Avs games before the break. Landeskog resumed skating with the Avs during their road trip.
Over the past several weeks, NHL insiders on both TSN’s Insider Trading Segment and the 32 Thoughts podcast have noted, in passing, that Landeskog would captain Team Sweden at the Olympics if he goes.
Landeskog was one of the first six players named to the roster last summer. He received those honors after playing just five playoff games for the Avalanche following more than three years on the shelf with a knee injury.
Assuming he plays, it’ll be the second time that Landeskog gets to represent his nation on the big stage. In 2014, Landeskog, at 21 years old, was an assistant captain for Team Sweden. They made it all the way to the gold medal game before falling to Team Canada.
Along with Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Erik Karlsson, and Marcus Johansson, Landeskog is one of four Swedes returning from 2014.
I think the only way Sweden doesn’t take him to Italy is if they’re convinced he won’t be able to play at all. If they think it’s a situation where he might miss round robin play and be ready for the medal round they’ll still take him. He’s too valuable on and off the ice to leave home.
Well, yeah.
Even if I knew he wouldn’t dress for the entire tournament, I’d still give him the C.
Wishing good health and good fortune.
He’s playing. I get it, I would make the same choice if I were him. But if I’m the organization I’m not happy about it. Too much riding on this season. He missed 3 years & it really screwed up this teams ability to win a cup during that time. I’m not blaming him, I just think somebody should step in & try & coerce him into skipping the tournament. It’s also become 1000% apparent over the last month when he’s in the lineup the team is much more locked in & the effort level is consistently high. I was… Read more »
Agree 100%
Absolutely
Perfect analysis
I have been saying all year that the coach and the Olympics are the 2 biggest threats to this years cup run. I get wanting to play for country, but every hockey player in the NHL is saying they play for Stanley Cups. Its just lip service, they mostly play for themselves and playing for country falls under that. At least 1 team will have their cup hopes dashed by the Olympics. The Avs and Lightning are probably at greatest risk, but very few teams are safe from potential disaster. Best on best should stay in August where it belongs.