Color of Hockey: Players looking to make impact in 2026 Olympics

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles the players of color chosen by their countries to compete in men’s and women’s hockey at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 from Feb. 6-22.

NHL players return for the first time in eight years, and a United States women’s player will make history when she steps onto the ice to face Czechia on Feb. 5.

These are some of the story lines of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 Feb. 6-22, and hockey players of color are poised to play significant roles in the men’s and women’s tournaments.

At least 11 players of color were selected by their countries to compete in the Olympics. And Japan’s women’s team makes its fifth Olympic appearance; Japan hosted the first women’s Olympic hockey tournament at Nagano in 1998.

“It just continues to speak to where our game is going,” said retired NHL forward Anson Carter, who is a studio analyst for “NHL on TNT” and will have the same role stateside for NBC during the Olympics. “The diversity of the players, I think it goes just hand in hand with our game as it continues to grow, to evolve.”

The women’s Olympic preliminary round begins Feb. 5, the day before the Games’ opening ceremonies, and the men’s play begins Feb. 11. Here are 10 men’s and women’s players of color to watch in Milano Cortina, in alphabetical order:

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, F, France, HC Ajoie (National League, Switzerland)

Bellemare’s 700 NHL games are the most by a player born in France and his 138 points (64 goals, 74 assists) with the Philadelphia Flyers, Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning and Seattle Kraken are second to Antoine Roussel. The 40-year-old forward from Le Blanc-Mesnil last played in the NHL in 2023-24, with seven points (four goals, three assists) in 40 games with Seattle. He has 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in 29 games this season for HC Ajoie in the National League, the top professional league in Switzerland. Bellemare, whose father is from Martinique, played in the IIHF World Championships 11 times, the Olympic qualifiers twice and won silver with Team Europe at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Laila Edwards, D, United States, University of Wisconsin (NCAA)

Edwards will make a historic Olympic debut as the first Black woman to play for the U.S.. The 21-year-old defenseman from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, has 33 points (seven goals, 26 assists) in 19 games this season for the top-ranked women’s NCAA Division I team. She led Division I women in goals (35) last season as a forward and was a top three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, presented to the top player in women’s college hockey. She won a Frozen Four championship with Wisconsin in 2023 as a freshman and was named to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association All-Rookie team. Edwards was an alternate captain on the U.S. team that won the silver medal at the 2022 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship in Madison, Wisconsin.

Sophie Jaques, D, Canada, Vancouver (PWHL)

Jaques makes her Olympic debut for Canada after she represented her country for the first time in the 2023-24 Rivalry Series against the U.S. The 25-year-old from Toronto won back-to-back Professional Women’s Hockey League championships with Minnesota in 2024 and 2025. She has six points (four goals, two assists) in 13 games for expansion Vancouver this season. Jaques starred at Ohio State University, where she had 59 points (21 goals, 38 assists) in 38 games to help Ohio State win the 2022 NCAA Women's Frozen Four championship. She became the first Black player to win the Patty Kazmaier award in 2023 after she had 48 points (24 goals, 24 assists) in 41 games and led NCAA defensemen in goals and points.

Jocelyne Larocque, D, Canada, Ottawa (PWHL)

Larocque is back for her fourth Olympics, having won gold in Beijing (2022) and Sochi (2014) and silver in PyeongChang (2018). She also won four gold medals (2024, 2022, 2021, 2012), seven silver (2025, 2023, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2011) and one bronze (2019) in 12 IIHF World Championship appearances. The 37-year-old from Ste. Anne, Manitoba, won two NCAA Frozen Four titles with the University of Minnesota-Duluth (2008, 2010) and is the school’s all-time leading scorer among defensemen with 105 points (19 goals, 86 assists) in 127 games. Larocque, who is Metis and was named Manitoba’s Indigenous Athlete of the Decade in 2021, has four assists in 13 games for Ottawa this season.

Auston Matthews, F, United States, Toronto Maple Leafs

The No. 1 pick by the Maple Leafs in the 2016 NHL Draft, Matthews has scored at least 30 goals in each of his first nine NHL seasons, including at least 40 six times and 60 twice. The 28-year-old Mexican American center, who grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona, has 40 points (24 goals, 16 assists) in 42 games this season. He won the Calder Trophy, voted as NHL rookie of the year (2017), Hart Trophy as NHL MVP (2022), Ted Lindsay as MVP at voted by the NHL Players’ Association (2022) and Rocket Richard Trophy as leading goal-scorer three times (2021, 2022, 2024). Matthews won gold at the 2014 and 2015 Under-18 World Juniors and bronze at the 2016 World Juniors. He also played for the United States at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.

Sarah Nurse, F, Canada, Vancouver (PWHL)

The 31-year-old from Hamilton, Ontario, was selected for her third Olympics after winning gold in Beijing in 2022 and silver in PyeongChang in 2018. She led Canada with 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) in seven games in Beijing, breaking a record set by Hayley Wickenheiser at the 2006 Torino Olympics. Nurse has been a thorn for the U.S. at the Olympics; she scored the opening goal and assisted on the game winner that propelled Canada to a 3-2 victory in the gold medal game in 2022, and also also scored the game-winner in a 2-1 victory in the preliminary round in PyeongChang in 2018. She has won six medals (three gold, two silver, one bronze) at the IIHF women’s world championships since her debut in 2019. The cousin of NHL Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse has been limited to two goals in two PWHL games this season because of an upper-body injury.

Gabrielle De Serres, D, France, Sudbury (Sudbury and Districts Girls Hockey Association)

A 27-year-old from Mont-Royal, Quebec, played with the University of Toronto from 2017-22 and had 59 points (13 goals, 46 assists) in 87 games. De Serres, whose mother is Chinese, took Canada U Sports’ Ontario University Athletics Player of the Year and Defender of the Year honors in 2021-22. She had three assists in 23 games with Montreal of the Premier Hockey Federation, a precursor of the PWHL, in 2022-23, had five points (three goals, two assists) in four games in 2023-24 with Cergy-Pontoise of the FFHG Feminin Elite, the top women’s professional league in France, and now plays with a senior team in the Sudbury (Ontario) and Districts Girls Hockey Association.

Jonas Siegenthaler, D, Switzerland, New Jersey Devils

An alternate captain for the Swiss team that won the silver medal at the 2025 IIHF World Championship, Siegenthaler has played in five Worlds (with two silver medals) and two IIHF World Junior Championships since 2015. The 28-year-old defensive defenseman, who is of Swiss and Thai heritage, has five assists in 48 games and leads the Devils with 81 blocked shots. He has 71 points (10 goals, 60 assists) in 415 NHL games with the Washington Capitals and Devils.

Nick Suzuki, F, Canada, Montreal Canadiens

The 26-year-old Canadiens captain leads Montreal with 54 points (15 goals, 39 assists) in 49 games. He had a NHL career-high 89 points (30 goals, 59 assists) in 82 games last season, averaging more than a point a game for the first time in his seven-year League career. Suzuki, who is of Canadian and Japanese heritage, finished the 2025 calendar year with the fourth-most points (97) among Canada-born NHL players, behind Olympic teammates Nathan MacKinnon (125), Connor McDavid (116) and Macklin Celebrini (98). The London, Ontario, native previously played internationally for Canada at the 2015 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup and the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Alexander True, F, Denmark, JYP (Liiga, Finland)

The 28-year-old center, who is of Danish and Filipino heritage, was chosen by Seattle in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft after playing 19 games in two seasons with the San Jose Sharks from 2019-21. He had five assists in 27 NHL games with the Sharks and Kraken after being a scorer in the American Hockey League, with 221 points (92 goals, 129 assists) in 390 games with San Jose, Charlotte and Coachella Valley. He led AHL San Jose with 55 points (24 goals, 31 assists) in 68 games in 2018-19 and was Charlotte’s point leader (42 points; 18 goals, 24 assists in 60 games) in 2021-22. The Copenhagen native has 24 points (seven goals, 17 assists) in 36 games with JYP of Liiga, Finland’s top professional league.