We’re really only just over a year away from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Whether or not the IOC and IIHF will let this happen, we don’t know.
I don’t know what percentage of Italian heritage all of these guys actually have in their blood.
But I think we could put together a pretty strong roster just based on how Italian their names sound.
Just some spaghetti and meatballs all up and down that lineup.
These guys aren’t throwing sauce to each other for some backdoor tap-ins.
They’re throwing gravy.
And by the way, I had to include Beniers and Trocheck in with this forward group.
And I’m sorry but there was never going to be a Team Italy lineup without Tony DeAngelo.
I don’t care if we need to go extract him out of Russia.
He’s on this team and he’s probably wearing the ‘C’.
Maybe even two C’s since he’s a huge Christopher Columbus guy.
There just aren’t a ton of Italian sounding goalies in the NHL currently.
There’s been a massive influx of Russians between the pipes over the years.
There are a ton of Swedes who grew up watching Henrik Lundqvist.
There are plenty of Finns.
Their names couldn’t be further from Italian.
So we’re going to have to bring Roberto Luongo out of retirement.
Which should be great, actually, considering he has plenty of Olympic experience.
Although I’m pretty sure I put together the best possible roster here.
Drew Commesso gets the backup role.
Good ol' South Shore boy.
And there you have Team Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Are they going to medal?
It would be a long shot, for sure.
But I could see them pulling off an upset or two.
At the very least they are going to down down either Czechia or Slovakia.
