NHL players will be participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics. This will be the first time NHL players return to the Olympic Games since 2014, which makes this tournament must-see television with best-on-best hockey in both the Men’s and Women’s tournaments.
The Women’s tournament begins on February 5th, but it’s really the inevitable finals between Canada and the USA that will take place on February 19th that we are all waiting for.
The Men’s tournament begins on February 11th with the final NHL games before the Olympic break taking place on February 5th, and the NHL returning to action on February 25th. The Olympics Gold Medal game takes place on February 22nd and it will be interesting to see if Canada can build on their 4-Nations Face-Off tournament win from last year with another best-on-best hockey title.
I’ve included the gold medal odds for both the Women’s and Men’s tournaments below. You can also bet on each individual game at SportsInteraction.com, our top rated betting site for Canadians.
Women’s Ice Hockey Gold Medal Odds
Here are the odds for the Women’s tournament from SportsInteraction.com (odds taken on February 4th):
As usual the women’s tournament will be a two nation battle between the USA and Canada. Team Canada defeated Team USA 3-2 in the gold medal game in 2022. Team Canada has now won 5 of the past 6 women’s hockey Olympic tournaments since the event was introduced in 1998. That said, Team USA won the recent 2025 World Championships last April, and dominated Canada winning 4 straight games in their 2025 Rivalry Series with Team USA outscoring Canada 24-7 over the 4 game series. Team USA are the rightful favourites and I’m somewhat surprised they aren’t bigger favourites over Team Canada after the domination in the Rivalry Series in November/December.
Play: Team USA -140
Men’s Ice Hockey Gold Medal Odds
When the Olympics is a best-on-best tournament Team Canada is the favourite. Canada has the undisputed two best players in the world in Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, combined with as good of depth as any team in the tournament, so Canada are the rightful favorites. Canada defeated Team USA 3-2 in OT in the 4-Nations Face-Off last year at this time, which was the first best-on-best tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. Canada has now won the past 4 international hockey tournaments that included NHL Players (2025 4-Nations, 2016 World Cup, 2014 Olympics, 2010 Olympics).
It would be a surprise if one of Canada, USA, and Sweden didn’t win the gold because these are the teams with elite NHL depth from top to bottom. That said, in these single elimination type tournaments it can come down to a bounce here or there, so it wouldn’t be a complete shock if Finland or Czechia is able to have an outside chance, but I don’t think these teams have the defensive depth to keep the star power of Canada or the USA off the scoreboard.
At plus odds I’ll take Team Canada and believe that the best players will find a way to win yet another best-on-best international hockey tournament. That said, I don’t think Team USA or Team Sweden are bad bets either, but I would be surprised if one of these three teams didn’t win the gold.
Play: Team Canada +115
You can also bet on any individual game of both the Men’s and Women’s tournament’s at SportsInteraction.com. You can find all of the odds by selecting ‘Hockey’ followed by ‘Olympics’ at the Sports Interaction website.
Here’s a screenshot example of the odds for Canada’s opening game vs Czechia (odds from February 4th):
Check out our hockey betting section for a further breakdown of the various bets you can make on each game, including money line, regulation time and over/under.
If you’re new to betting online you can follow our 3 step guide to betting on the Olympics. It’s very easy and only takes a few minutes to get your first bet in.
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