{"id":457037,"date":"2026-02-08T21:16:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457037\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T21:16:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T21:16:06","slug":"auston-matthews-named-captain-of-2026-u-s-olympic-mens-ice-hockey-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457037\/","title":{"rendered":"Auston Matthews Named Captain of 2026 U.S. Olympic Men\u2019s Ice Hockey Team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/2026olympics-austonmatthews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Auston Matthews<\/a>\u00a0(Scottsdale, Ariz.), who currently serves as captain of the NHL\u2019s Toronto Maple Leafs, has been named captain of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/2026olympicmenroster\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 U.S. Olympic Men\u2019s Ice Hockey Team<\/a>\u00a0it was announced today by USA Hockey.<\/p>\n<p>In addition,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/2026olympics-matthewtkachuk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew Tkachuk<\/a>\u00a0(St. Louis, Mo.), who is an alternate captain for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/2026olympics-charliemcavoy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charlie McAvoy<\/a>\u00a0(Long Beach, N.Y.), an alternate captain for the Boston Bruins, have been named alternate captains of Team USA.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Auston, Charlie and Matthew did a great job in leading our team a year ago at the 4 Nations Face-Off and it\u2019s great to have them back in those roles for the Olympics,\u201d said\u00a0Bill Guerin\u00a0(Wilbraham, Mass.), general manager of the 2026 U.S. Olympic Men\u2019s Ice Hockey Team and also president of hockey operations and general manager of the Minnesota Wild. &#8220;They all bring different leadership traits to the table and I know all three are excited, as is our whole team, about representing our country as part of Team USA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Matthews, Tkachuk and McAvoy have played together three times on the international stage, most recently in helping the U.S. finish second in the 4 Nations Face-Off last February in Montreal and Boston. In addition, the trio helped the U.S. earn gold at the 2015 IIHF Under-18 Men\u2019s World Championship and bronze at the 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Matthews was also part of the gold medal-winning U.S. Under-18 Men\u2019s National Team at the 2014 IIHF Under-18 Men\u2019s World Championship and played for Team USA at the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship and 2016 IIHF Men\u2019s World Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Team USA will open play in the Olympic Winter Games on Thursday, Feb. 12, in Milan, Italy, against Latvia at Milano Santaguilia Arena. Opening faceoff is set for 9:10 p.m. local\/3:10 p.m. ET and the game can been seen live on USA Network. All hockey games in the Olympic Tournament will be streamed live on Peacock.<\/p>\n<p>NOTES:\u00a0Matthew Tkachuk\u2019s father, Keith, served as an alternate captain of the championship-winning U.S. team at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and was an alternate captain for Team USA in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey \u2026 Follow Team USA during the Olympic Winter Games by clicking\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/2026olympicmen\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. \u2013\u00a0Auston Matthews\u00a0(Scottsdale, Ariz.), who currently serves as captain of the NHL\u2019s Toronto Maple Leafs, has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-457037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}