Two Utah Mammoth players are headed to the Olympics in Milan Cortina this year.
Mammoth captain Clayton Keller was named to the Team USA roster this week.
The 2026 Games will be the 27-year-old’s first appearance on the world stage, but not his first time with Team USA.
Keller has won gold at three different levels with USA Hockey: in 2015 as a U18, 2017 at the World Junior Championships and at the 2025 World Championships. He was the U.S. captain at the World Championships and scored 10 points in 10 games.
Also headed to the Games is Mammoth defender Olli Määttä. He will play for the Finnish national team at the Olympics in February.
This will be the 31-year-old’s second Olympic Winter Games. He previously helped lead Finland to a bronze medal at the 2014 Olympics and a silver medal at the 2021 World Championship.
The last time National Hockey League players participated in an Olympic Games was in 2014 and many players have waited over a decade to represent their country on the world stage.
In 2018, athletes from the NHL did not participate because the league did not reach an agreement with other international committees on travel and lodging payments.
And in 2022 the NHL pulled out of the Olympics because of the pandemic.
Players almost had to wait another cycle this year after the NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman expressed concern about hockey rink construction delays.
Bettman threatened to pull the players if the ice was deemed unsafe. In December, the NHL said it was “cautiously optimistic” that players will participate in the Games.
All Olympic venues must be completed by Feb. 2 and there is no alternative venue to host hockey tournaments for the 2026 Games.
The women’s tournament is scheduled to start Feb. 5 and the men’s hockey competition is scheduled to begin Feb. 11.
