Apparently NHL is willing to allow players Italian descent to represent Italy in the 2026 Olympics, let's make rosters for other countries

[archangel2]

I am not confused. The NHL does not control nationality of its players who can and can not play. The IIHF does.

A dual citizen that hasn't represented another team needs 480 days in the new country, one that has needs 1460 days. Switching twice isn't possible.

Petr Nedved says high

 

[Albatros]

Petr Nedved says high

Canada was his first team.

 

[Dueling Banjos]

Barrasso in net?

 

[Incubajerks]

If they make Italy competitive from a bunch of dudes that can’t speak a word of Italian, that’s pathetic.

Have you ever seen or heard an Italian-American say at least one word correctly in Italian? I still don't. Gabagol.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

What would team Norway look like?

Anders Lee/Nick Bjugstad/Mats Zuccarello
Michael Brandsegg-Nygård//Jackson Blake

Brady Skjei/Will Borgen
Emil Lilleberg/Tyler Kleven
Stian Solberg
Yikes not good at all.

 

[SwissFan12]

So Switzerland should be able to get Joey Daccord who is actually Swiss and agreed to play for Switzerland before but couldn't because he made all his classes in NA

 

[Albatros]

So Switzerland should be able to get Joey Daccord who is actually Swiss and agreed to play for Switzerland before but couldn't because he made all his classes in NA

Ironically he could only play for Team USA which is also the only team that doesn't want him.

 

[WayTooCold]

USA hockey team are all descendants of retired Canadian NHLers who settled in the US.

 

[Guardian452]

Italy has fielded rosters in the Winter Olympics and in the top International Championships before, and without this silliness. Why wouldn't they be able to do that now? Why the need for it?

A lot of those players were Americans or Canadians of Italian decent who played Canadian Junior or U.S. college hockey before continuing their careers in Italy. Their starting goalie for the 2006 Olympics previously was the starting goalie for Canada at the World Juniors and was considered one the top goalie prospects in his draft year.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I think it could be good for Italian hockey to actually field a decent team at the Olympics

 

[ORRFForever]

A dual citizen that hasn't represented another team needs 480 days in the new country, one that has needs 1460 days. Switching twice isn't possible.

They should allow players to play for Italy this ONE time, if their own country has passed, and then go back.

 

[absolute garbage]

Is this the Luigi effect? Italians are so back.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Is this the Luigi effect? Italians are so back.

The cold blooded murderer effect? Nothing cool about that.

 

[absolute garbage]

The cold blooded murderer effect? Nothing cool about that.

Truly chilling.

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

A dual citizen that hasn't represented another team needs 480 days in the new country, one that has needs 1460 days. Switching twice isn't possible.

Seems like any Italian ancestry who hasn’t played for another country could then play. I would imagine this applies to u20 and up. Not sure if u18 cap ties

 

[Silky Johnson]

All I want is for Barkov to play for Russia

You should feel very lucky if Russia play at all

 

[SanDogBrewin]

Tony Amonte for coach!

 

[HockeyScotty]

I would be in favor of this if there were some well-defined rules around it.
1) Any players that represent Italy are prevented from changing their eligibility in the future.
2) The exemption of the 16 month rule only applies to host countries.
3) The ancestry must be proven to the Parent or Grandparent level.
4) The results of the tournament are not counted towards any future IIHF rankings/placements; essentially Team Italy would earn "0" for the Olympics for ranking purposes.
5) Dual-Citizenship status would have to be pending/approved prior to the tournament.

 

[HockeyScotty]

I could see guys like Vatrano, Toffoli, Carlo, Pacioretty, Palmieri, the Folignos, Ferraro, Fabbro, Fabbri, Iafallo, DeMelo, Mangiapane, Ceci, Acciari, Dellandrea, Donato, Mancini, Caggiula, Pezzetta, Milano, DeAngelo, etc going after this if they are eligible since they will not make any of their home nation teams again. Cirelli wouldn't as he is already on Team Canada and definitely not any of the young stars like Celebrini, Fantilli, etc.

Italy already has a really good goalie prospect in Clara.

 

[carjackmalone]

I could see guys like Vatrano, Toffoli, Carlo, Pacioretty, Palmieri, the Folignos, Ferraro, Fabbro, Fabbri, Iafallo, DeMelo, Mangiapane, Ceci, Acciari, Dellandrea, Donato, Mancini, Caggiula, Pezzetta, Milano, DeAngelo, etc going after this if they are eligible since they will not make any of their home nation teams again. Cirelli wouldn't as he is already on Team Canada and definitely not any of the young stars like Celebrini, Fantilli, etc.

Italy already has a really good goalie prospect in Clara.

Celebrini is of Croatian descent mother and father

 

[Albatros]

Celebrini is of Croatian descent mother and father

From a historically Italian region of Croatia, can't see how that's much different to other Italian Americans or Canadians whose roots are generations old.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Has anyone asked the Italian Federation what they want?

Or how Canada has little or no say in this topic. The IIHF are the ones who run the Olympic hockey stuff and not the NHL

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

Or how Canada has little or no say in this topic. The IIHF are the ones who run the Olympic hockey stuff and not the NHL

give the IIHF $100.00 they'll kiss your ass. Worthlerss scum organization.

 

[super6646]

Interesting. Italy from what I understand has some of the most ‘generous’ citizenship by descent laws in the EU (and perhaps anywhere). It’s apparently possible to claim through an Italian great-grandparent- different subject but I recently read this in an article about Argentinians of Italian descent being encouraged to emigrate to Italy and repopulate some of the villages that are dying out.

Can’t bold it, but Argentines of Italian descent are 2/3 of the population. You could make the argument that the avg Argentine is more Italian than Spanish lol.

Granted I can’t blame them. Things aren’t all the great in Italy, but they are infinitely better than in Argentina. And Italy is generally picky about who they want coming in…

 

[garbageteam]

I would be in favor of this if there were some well-defined rules around it.
1) Any players that represent Italy are prevented from changing their eligibility in the future.
2) The exemption of the 16 month rule only applies to host countries.
3) The ancestry must be proven to the Parent or Grandparent level.
4) The results of the tournament are not counted towards any future IIHF rankings/placements; essentially Team Italy would earn "0" for the Olympics for ranking purposes.
5) Dual-Citizenship status would have to be pending/approved prior to the tournament.

Agree with all except 4) as I think it kind of gimmicks it more on top of a gimmick. It doesn't need any sort of special treatment for the ranking. We are literally not going to put Macklem Celebrini or something on this team.

Basically if you commit to Italy that's your country going forward, that's it. No dipping in for the Olympics and then representing Canada or the US or Switzerland in another year. I might even go further and say anyone that had represented another country before internationally should be barred from switching to Italy using the rules of this exception.

So this would give Italy access to basically any decent North American who has never put on a Canada or US jersey (or I guess in one or two extremely exceptional cases German or Swiss, though I doubt those would improve the Italian team) with Italian roots/heritage through parent or grandparent should be able to represent Italy if chosen, under the premise that they can never present another country internationally again. The idea should be that Italy cannot take from another country any player that they could conceivably use, even at a B or C level tournament.