{"id":143860,"date":"2026-01-22T00:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143860\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T00:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:20:10","slug":"ducks-defender-replacing-injured-seth-jones-on-olympic-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/143860\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks Defender Replacing Injured Seth Jones on Olympic Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"4y\">The United States has made its first official roster adjustment ahead of next month&#8217;s Olympic tournament <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/onsi\/breakaway\/minnesota-wild\/usa-hockey-receiving-unparalleled-support-winter-olympics\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in Milan and Cortina<\/a>, as Seth Jones will not be able to participate after sustaining an upper-body injury during the Winter Classic earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"51\">The Florida Panthers defenseman was struck in the collarbone area by a deflected shot during the outdoor game against the New York Rangers on January 2. He has not played since and was placed on long-term injured reserve by the Panthers earlier this week, officially ending his hopes of representing his country at the Olympics.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"54\">USA Hockey announced that Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe will replace Jones on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/olympics\/milano-cortina-olympics-full-team-usa-hockey-roster\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">25-player Olympic roster<\/a>. The 25-year-old becomes the first official replacement for any country ahead of the Milan-Cortina Games.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jackson LaCombe has been named to the US Olympic team, replacing Seth Jones. \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wxkuyE7WSy\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/wxkuyE7WSy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NHL (@NHL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NHL\/status\/2014019731473211685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 21, 2026<\/a>LaCombe&#8217;s International Experience<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5d\">The Minnesota native helped the United States capture its first gold medal at the IIHF Men&#8217;s World Championship since 1933 last May. His performance on the international stage demonstrated his ability to compete at the highest level when representing his country.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5g\">LaCombe has recorded 31 points in 49 games this season for Anaheim, including six goals and 25 assists. The second-round pick from the 2019 NHL Draft has compiled 91 points in 197 career regular-season games since breaking into the league.<\/p>\n<p>Defensive Depth for Team USA<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5m\">LaCombe&#8217;s addition<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/onsi\/breakaway\/utah-mammoth\/team-usa-announces-2026-winter-olympics-roster\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> gives Team USA six left-handed-shooting defensemen<\/a> alongside just two righties in Brock Faber and Charlie McAvoy. He joins a defensive corps that includes Quinn Hughes, Jaccob Slavin, Zach Werenski, Jake Sanderson, and Noah Hanifin.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5p\">Jones appeared in 40 games for the Panthers this season before the injury, recording 24 points while averaging over 23 minutes per game. The 31-year-old played a significant role in Florida&#8217;s Stanley Cup championship run last season after being acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5s\">The Olympic tournament begins next month when NHL players return to the Olympic stage for the first time since 2014. The United States finished second to Canada at the recent 4 Nations Face-Off and will look to capture gold in Italy.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5v\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/onsi\/breakaway\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Make sure you bookmark Breakaway On SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, recruiting coverage, and more!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States has made its first official roster adjustment ahead of next month&#8217;s Olympic tournament in Milan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-143860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}