The Czech team, which is part of Group A, will face the Canadian team on February 12, then face the French team on February 13 and the Swiss team on February 15.
Here is the Czech team roster for the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games (in alphabetical order) and a breakdown by NHL.com of each position group:
FRONT (14)
Romain CervenkaDynamo Pardubice
Radek FaksaDallas Stars
Jakub Flek, Kometa Brno
Thomas HertlVegas Golden Knights
David KampfVancouver Canucks
Ondrej KaseHC Litvinov
Dominique KubalikEV Zug
Martin NecasColorado Avalanche
Ondrej PalatNew Jersey Devils
David PastrnakBoston Bruins
Lucas SedlakDynamo Pardubice
Matej StranskyHC Davos
David TomasekFarjestad
Pavel ZachaBoston Bruins
Head coach Radim Rulik, who had the final say in putting this roster together, is building the offensive core around the players who won gold at the 2024 IIHF World Championship in Prague, with Hertl and Faksa the only ones not in that group. Generating offense shouldn’t be a problem for the Czech team, who can deploy Pastrnak and Zacha on the top line alongside Cervenka, who is expected to be the team captain and who has shown excellent chemistry with the Bruins star forward at the last two World Championships. Although she turned 40 on December 10, Cervenka is the top scorer in the Czech Extraliga, with 43 points (13 goals, 30 assists) in 30 games for Pardubice. Promoting Palat to the frontline and letting Cervenka play with his Pardubice teammate Sedlak could be another option. However, all of this would likely mean Necas would play on the second line, with the ability to move alongside Pastrnak in key moments and on the power play, where Hertl could also fit in well. European players like Flek, Kubalik and Stransky could bring some speed and provide secondary scoring.
