Putting Together The 2026 Italian Olympic Hockey Roster With The Most Italian Sounding Players In The NHL
We're really only just over a year away from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. We've heard already from Gary Bettman that he wants to finally allow NHL players to go over and compete for their countries in these Olympics again. But now it's being reported that the NHL is also interested in allowing players of Italian heritage to go over and play for the host nation.
Whether or not the IOC and IIHF will let this happen, we don't know. But if the NHL is going to have their players go over to Italy to play in the Olympics, they'd rather not have them waste a game against an Italian team that would have no business being able to compete with the likes of USA and Canada and Sweden and Finland.
Now I'm not going to do a complete deep dive here on the ancestry of every player in the NHL. I don't know what percentage of Italian heritage all of these guys actually have in their blood. But I think we could put together a pretty strong roster just based on how Italian their names sound. So with that being the lead criteria here, let's look at a potential Team Italy for the 2026 Olympics.
Forwards
Icon Sportswire. Getty Images.Line 1: Frankie Vatrano (ANA) - Adam Fantilli (CBJ) - Kyle Palmieri (NYI)
Line 2: Nick Foligno (CHI) - Anthony Cirelli (TBL) - Tyler Toffoli (SJS)
Line 3: Ty Dellandrea (SJS) - Marco Rossi (MIN) - Andrew Mangiapane (WSH)
Line 4: Matias Maccelli (UTA) - Noel Acciari (PIT) - Luke Evangelista (NSH)
Extras: Matty Beniers (SEA), Vincent Trocheck (NYR)
Just look at all those vowels! Just some spaghetti and meatballs all up and down that lineup. Just imagine how great the call would sound on the broadcast when you've got someone going full Mario on the pronunciation of "Mangiapane". These guys aren't throwing sauce to each other for some backdoor tap-ins. They're throwing gravy.
And by the way, I had to include Beniers and Trocheck in with this forward group. Even though their last names don't end in a vowel, they're both the most aggressively Italian looking dudes in the league.
Christopher Mast. Getty Images.Defense
Josh Lavallee. Getty Images.Pair 1: Dante Fabbro (CBJ) - Alex Pietrangelo (VGK)
Pair 2: Cody Ceci (SJS) - Mario Ferraro (SJS)
Pair 3: Marc Del Gaizo (NSH) - Victor Mancini (NYR)
Pair 4: Steven Santini (TBL) - Tony DeAngelo (KHL)
If you didn't think we'd be taking a dude named "Mario" on this team then you've got another thing coming. The only thing I'd be worried about with this blueline is the fact that they love the shit out of some pizza. So they're going to be tossing some hot n' ready pizzas right through the slot on some breakouts. And I'm sorry but there was never going to be a Team Italy lineup without Tony DeAngelo. I don't care if we need to go extract him out of Russia. He's on this team and he's probably wearing the 'C'. Maybe even two C's since he's a huge Christopher Columbus guy.
Goalies
Jeff Vinnick. Getty Images.Starter: Roberto Luongo
Backup: Drew Commesso (CHI)
Okay so here's where things get a little tricky for Team Italy. There just aren't a ton of Italian sounding goalies in the NHL currently. There's been a massive influx of Russians between the pipes over the years. There are a ton of Swedes who grew up watching Henrik Lundqvist. There are plenty of Finns. Their names couldn't be further from Italian. So we're going to have to bring Roberto Luongo out of retirement. Which should be great, actually, considering he has plenty of Olympic experience. He was also the assistant GM for Canada's team at the 2022 Olympics, so he could help out with any more roster building Team Italy would need. Although I'm pretty sure I put together the best possible roster here.
Drew Commesso gets the backup role. Good ol' South Shore boy.
And there you have Team Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Are they going to medal? It would be a long shot, for sure. But I could see them pulling off an upset or two. At the very least they are going to down down either Czechia or Slovakia.