Which Avs players would make their 2026 Olympics teams?

Mikko Rantanen can probably envision himself streaking down the wing in a blue-and-white jersey, collecting a pass from one of the best centers or defensemen in the world and scoring one of the biggest goals of his hockey career.

Sure, that can happen in a Stanley Cup Final with Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and the Colorado Avalanche. But this version of his dream could include Aleksander Barkov and Miro Heiskanen, and the jersey would have a golden lion on the front.

Rantanen, like MacKinnon, Makar and so many of the NHL’s greatest players under the age of 30, has not had the chance to play for his country in the Winter Olympics, let alone any best-on-best tournament with his national team. He has played for Finland at the IIHF world championships, which is a much bigger deal in European countries. But to put on the Suomi sweater and participate in an experience like the Olympics would be something entirely different.

“It would mean a lot,” Rantanen said. “Hopefully the league and the international board can make it happen. That would be really fun to do that. I grew up watching those Olympics. It was really big for Finland always. I would be really excited to be part of that.”

The NHL has skipped the past two Winter Olympics. The NHL, NHLPA and IIHF could not come to an agreement for the 2018 games, so the league decided to not send its players for the first time since 1994. There was an agreement for 2022, but the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way.

There hasn’t been a best-on-best tournament at the men’s senior level since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. MacKinnon played in that, but not for Canada. The best young Canadians and Americans were thrown together on “Team North America” and it ended up being the most exciting thing about the tournament.

There are players on the Avs roster who were in Sochi in 2014 (Gabriel Landeskog, Tomas Tatar) or Vancouver in 2010 (Jack Johnson). They know what their teammates have been missing out on.

“It was awesome. It was one of the highlights of my career,” said Johnson, who won a silver medal with the United States and competed in one of the most famous games in hockey history, Canada’s overtime victory when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal. “I was very fortunate, not only to play in the Olympics but also when it was best-on-best. To play in it in Canada, it was pretty cool — like a perfect storm experience. There’s nothing like it.”

The next chance is in 2026, when the Winter Olympics will be in Italy. Representatives from every side — the NHL, NHLPA and IIHF — have repeatedly said they hope an agreement will be struck and the world’s best will return to the sport’s grandest stage. There has also been plenty of reporting on a potential World Cup that could be staged before 2026.

World Cups, like Canada Cups that came before them, are great, mostly because hockey fans get to see international powerhouses at their best against each other so rarely. But the Olympics is the crown jewel, particularly for players who didn’t grow up hearing stories about Paul Henderson in 1972.

Let’s assume it finally happens, and the NHL sends its players to the Milano-Cortina games in 2026. That is still pretty far off on the horizon, but we can dare to dream. If it does happen, there will very likely be a significant Avalanche presence.