2026 Winter Olympics Hockey Odds

Fresh off the wildly popular Four Nations Face-Off, many are looking forward to the Milan-Cortina Olympics in less than a year.

For the second straight season, the NHL will pause its season for a best-on-best tournament, when the best players on earth will head to Italy for their first Olympics appearance since 2014.

The NHL is riding high off the Four Nations, since the players were highly engaged in the exhibition tournament. But the Olympics are the, pardon the pun, gold standard for hockey players, which means the stakes will be raised even.

Even though it’s a year away, here is everything you need to know about betting the 2026 Winter Olympics Hockey tournament.

Olympic Hockey Odds

• Canada (+175)
• United States (+190) 
• Sweden (+500)
• Finland (+700)
• Czechia (+1400)
• Germany (+5000)
• Slovakia (+5000)
• Switzerland (+5000)

2026 Winter Olympics Favorites

Canada (+175)

Canadians will be right to tell you they have won every best-on-best tournament since 2006, including their exhilarating Four Nations Face-Off title on Connor McDavid’s tournament-winning goal in the championship game.

McDavid will again lead a superstar-laden roster that should feature fellow Hart Trophy winners Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, plus perennial Norris Trophy candidate Cale Makar.  Canada is loaded and rightly deserving of its place as tournament favorites, even though it will have to leave North America – where it has not always dominated during Olympic play.

Jordan Binnington answered much of Canada’s big question marks by backstopping the country to the championship, but there are bona fide concerns about Canada’s goaltending. 

2026 Milan-Cortina Hockey Contenders

United States (+190)

Hockey Canada had been chomping at the bit to get this generation of players into a best-on-best tournament, and if the Four Nations Face-Off was any indication, USA Hockey is right there with Canada in terms of talent.

The Americans have almost no flaws and were right there with Canada during the Four Nations. Still, if Canada has angst about leaving North America, the U.S. should as well, since the yanks have not medaled in hockey outside of their home continent since the 1972 games in Sapporo, Japan.

But with their talent level, the Americans should be in contention in a best-on-best tournament anywhere. The U.S. was the only nation with a Hart Trophy winner (Auston Matthews), Norris Trophy winner (Adam Fox) and Vezina Trophy winner (Connor Hellebuyck) on its Four Nations roster, and Quinn Hughes – the reigning Norris winner and a favorite to repeat this year – should play in Italy after missing the Four Nations tournament due to injury.

The only question at this point is whether the U.S. can beat Canada in a winner-take-all game. The Americans haven’t done so since the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, losing four straight knockout-stage games, including the Four Nations championship game.

Sweden (+500)

The Swedes may not be as loaded, talent-wise, as the U.S. or Canada, but Sweden was the last nation to win a best-on-best tournament aside from Canada – in 2006 – and was the runner up to Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Sweden’s roster should again be dominant, defensively. The Swedes boast the likes of Norris Trophy winners Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson plus Rasmus Dahlin and Jonas Brodin, while still having solid forward talent led by Mika Zibanejad, Viktor Arvidsson, William Nylander and more.

The Swedes have had a tendency to underachieve at marquee tournaments – they did again in Four Nations when they failed to reach the championship game after losing to both Finland and Canada in round robin play.

2026 Winter Olympic Hockey Longshots

Finland (+700)

The Finns should be the only other nation made up entirely of NHL players, since Russia will again be banned from representation in Olympic competition. The Finns may be talent deficient compared to the nations listed above, but they have been scrappy and also have talent, like Aleksander Barkov and Sebastian Aho.

The Finns have played the role of little brother to Sweden – even though Finland did defeat Sweden in pool play, keeping the Swedes from reaching the championship game. Plus, Finland may have superstar talent but is clearly fourth in the pecking order behind Canada, U.S. and Sweden, even though it plays an extremely structured game.

Czechia (+1400)

Like Finland, the Czechs have strong NHL-caliber talent but likely not enough to compete for the gold medal. The golden age of Czechia hockey was in the late-1990s, when the nation took gold in 1998 behind Dominik Hasek’s unbelievable play.

But Hasek isn’t walking through that door. Even though we like the pedigree of Ondrej Palat, plus the great skill of David Pastrnak, Tomas Hertl and Martin Necas, Czechia likely doesn’t have the depth to compete – especially with Petr Mrazek likely to tend goal for the nation.

Hopefully Jaromir Jagr is a part of the team in some capacity, since he still is playing in Kladno, despite the fact he will be 54 when the tournament starts next February.