3 days Ago By Joe Yerdon
We know hockey fans everywhere are beyond excited about seeing NHL players return to the Winter Olympics in 2026. Seeing the best players in the world represent their countries and duke it out to see who wins gold provides us with some of the best action the sport sees. But what if we took the thrills of 5-on-5 hockey and shrunk it down to 3-on-3 instead? As it turns out, that's something the IIHF wants to add for the 2030 Olympic Games and they're putting a proposal together to try and make it happen.
Picture that, if you will. The action we get to see during the NHL season in overtime but done in a way so that it's the entire game. It wouldn't be wholly original as it was something that was done during the Summer Olympics in Paris this year with basketball.
The difference between how basketball was set up and the possibility of doing it with hockey is we know what it would be like having the best of the best playing it. That's why we're inspired today to pick out the ideal 3-on-3 teams (with goalies) for each country. Since 2030 is a bit too far away for our liking and no one has any idea who will be playing in the NHL in six years, we're moving the date up for who we think would make the best lineup for 2026.
Just go along with it, we know you'll enjoy it and have scorching takes to share in the comments. Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and Cale Makar (Goalie: Jordan Binnington) If there's one position Canada has the biggest issue with it's their goaltending, but you know what helps make that not a problem? Being able to run a trio of Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Cale Makar out there to go win a game. There are roughly a million permutations of Canadian forwards and defensemen you can put together that would be able to beat basically anyone else on Earth at hockey, but would any of them be as fun as these three? No chance.
McDavid and Crosby working together is the kind of thing only seen in video games when you're trying to really pile it on against the computer. With Makar out there to also help push the puck and light the lamp, it's essentially deeply unfair to anyone else. Even with Crosby being on the older side of things in 2026, it wouldn't matter.
As for goalie...
yes, we selected Binnington, and we know the internet loves to hate him. But if this were happening right now, the choice is probably Cam Talbot, it still could be him in a couple years too! Or it could be Adin Hill, Logan Thompson, Sam Montembeault, Stuart Skinner or Connor Ingram. Just pick one and let the rest of the guys go win it.
Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes and Quinn Hughes (Goalie: Connor Hellebuyck) As fun as Canada's best three were to put together, imagine the highlights to be made with Auston Matthews out there with Jack and Quinn Hughes. Egads, man. Matthews's electrifying goal scoring to go along with his ability to make plays happen out of nowhere getting matched up with Jack Hughes and his ability to speed past opponents and juke them out of their skates and then to have Quinn Hughes joining the rush.
It's wicked, it's nasty, it's electrifying...
it's perfect, really. The U.S.
will be able to roll out a lot of fun and exciting groups for a 3-on-3, but consider us biased when we say that these three would be the group that would make everyone lean forward and sit on the edge of their seats whenever they hit the ice. Having Connor Hellebuyck handle the action in goal while everyone else gets to work piling on goals works for us just fine since he's perhaps the best goalie in the league. Filip Forsberg, William Nylander and Victor Hedman (Goalie: Filip Gustavsson) When it comes to picking out a 3-on-3 group for Sweden, one of the more interesting things for them is how they could roll out a trio of defensemen and it would probably work out really well.
The thing is, the Swedes have a pile of outstanding forwards as well. Filip Forsberg has been one of the best Swedes in the NHL as has William Nylander. Jesper Bratt would also be a great choice for this, but for our first three guys out on the ice, we're going with Forsberg and Nylander to work some magic.
We have to have a defensemen as part of this as well and with so many great ones to choose from, seniority gets the call here with Victor Hedman. Gustav Forsling, Rasmus Dahlin and Erik Karlsson could fit the bill, too. In goal, Minnesota's Filip Gustavsson gets the nod for us although we are big fans of Linus Ullmark and Jacob Markström as well.
Swedish depth is pretty good, isn't it? Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen (Goalie: Juuse Saros) As far as trios go, what Finland can go with is as impressive as it gets. With Barkov leading the way, he can not only score but he can make it deeply annoying for opponents to try and score as well. He's a leader and if you don't believe in him yet, what's your deal? Rantanen is perhaps the best pure Finnish scorer since Teemu Selanne and Rantanen gets his points by scoring and assisting teammates.
His ability to pile up points and scoring chances will make him the perfect complementary forward for Barkov. Sebastian Aho would also be a great pick. With Heiskanen running the show on defense, even though 3-on-3 can be a bit loose with positional definitions, it gives Finland an all-around threat on the backend.
Heiskanen might also be our only top choice among Finnish defensemen as well. No offense to Niko Mikkola, Henri Jokiharju or Rasmus Ristolainen of course. Saros gets the call in goal because he's the top Finn goalie, although Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Kevin Lankinen have been good this season as well.
But Saros is the top guy until fully unseated and that's not happening yet. David Pastrnak, Martin Necas, Filip Hronek (Goalie: Lukas Dostal) The player the most upset about their country not being involved in the Four Nations Face-Off was David Pastrnak because he wanted Czechia involved badly. Fortunately, they will be at the Olympics and for our 3-on-3 exercise, they're definitely part of the fun.
With Pastrnak front and center and crushing opponents dreams with his dynamic goals and fantastic suits off the ice. The main question for us was which forward would he team up with and the two that stood out most were Tomas Hertl and Martin Necas and with the way Necas has exploded this season, recency bias won out. With Pastrnak and Necas rolling up front and Necas playing the part of setup man, we like the way that works.
Our other question was: Who the heck is playing defense? There are five defensemen from Czechia that have played games in the NHL this season, so the pickings are slim. Fortunately, Vancouver's Filip Hronek was born to up the pressure offensively for a 3-on-3 situation. If we wanted someone to defend and muck it up, Radko Gudas would do the trick there, but we want goals so we're going with Hronek.
In goal, Lukas Dostal not only looks like the Anaheim Ducks' goalie of the future, but he's looking more and more like the guy who will man the Czech net for years to come. Nikita Kucherov, Alex Ovechkin and Kirill Kaprizov (Goalie: Igor Shesterkin) Although Russia has not been cleared to take part in international hockey events, they can be cleared to play in the coming years. We're very understanding of the situation and reasons why they're not included, but we're being prepared just in case.
When it comes to putting together a 3-on-3 group this was like trying to pick out our three favorite ice cream flavors and only three. There's so much talent up front at forward for Russia that despite there being some outstanding Russian defensemen (Mikhail Sergachev, Dmitry Orlov) we're going with three forwards for our 3-on-3 squad. Alex Ovechkin gets the call because, honestly, do we think he'll be done playing hockey by 2026? No shot.
Even if he's back in Moscow playing in the KHL by then, he'll still be playing and still be part of their national team. It doesn't matter that he'd be 41 by then, he'd be out there and roaring. It'll be a lot easier for him, too, having Nikita Kucherov and Kirill Kaprizov with him out there to light up the scoreboard.
Both of them will be in the MVP discussion this season and probably will be for the next few years anyway. Heck, even if Ovechkin wasn't part of this, we'd just slot Artemi Panarin in there and it'll cause just as many, if not more, headaches for opponents. In goal, having to pick between Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin and Andrei Vasilevskiy is cruel, but Shesterkin gets the nod here.
He's one of the very best in the NHL and when you've got three forwards flying around, it helps to have Shesterkin back there to save the day..
