To dominate at the Olympics, you have to be the first overall pick.

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
To dominate at the Olympics, you have to be the first overall pick.
Credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

The qualifying round of the men's Olympic hockey tournament is over.

As I mentioned mentioned this morning, we now know the medal round lineup. We know that Canada (1st in the qualifying round) will face the winner of the Czech Republic vs. Denmark game on Wednesday.

Things are going well for Canada in general, when you think about it, because today the women can make it to the final if they beat Switzerland.

Of course, in the men's tournament, there are some dominant NHL stars. Connor McDavid is finally showing that he can perform in a Canadian Olympic jersey.

But he's not the only good player.

In fact, when you look at the tournament scoring leaders, you realize that big names from Canada and the United States are among the top scorers.

And then there's Juraj Slafkovsky, who is somewhat single-handedly carrying Slovakia.

What's interesting for Slaf (and the Montreal Canadiens) is that when you look at the tournament's top scorers, you realize that the top six are all first overall picks.
That said, Martin Necas also has two goals and three assists, as does Nathan MacKinnon. But still. Slaf is taking off in 2025-2026, and that statistic, even if we're only talking about the short term, speaks volumes. It tells us that, more and more, the Slovakian is playing in the big leagues.

Imagine if he were Canadian or American, how much better surrounded he would be, plus…

Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton, Martin St-Louis, and the entire Canadiens organization must be hoping that the Slovak will bring that confidence to Montreal for the end of the regular season.

After all, for the playoff race, seeing a revamped Slaf would be even better. And that's even though it's hard to complain about his fourth NHL season so far.


In a nutshell

– It's different from hockey.

It's clear that Canada would be in a poor position again this year without the presence of Quebec athletes.https://t.co/7bT7bVnFp0

— TVA Sports (@TVASports) February 16, 2026

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