Italian men’s national ice hockey team: call-ups for Milan Cortina 2026 Olympics

Italy is ready to live its Olympic dream in Milan Cortina 2026: the technical staff of the men’s national team has selected the 25 players who will play with the Azzurri jersey in the tournament of the upcoming Winter Games, starting with Sweden-Italy next February 11.

After a careful phase of evaluation and study of the profiles, head coach Jukka Jalonen together with assistant coaches Giorgio De Bettin and Stefan Mair chose the players called up for the very important Olympic showcase, a stage on which Italy will return exactly 20 years after the Turin 2006 edition. There are no players making their debut and, apart from one, all the profiles chosen belong to players involved with the national team in the two European Cup of Nations legs in Poland and Hungary in November and December. The only absentee on those occasions, due to a physical problem now resolved, is Dylan Di Perna: the 29-year-old from Bolzano returns to the national team after playing the World Cup First Division Group A in 2025 in Romania.

Jukka Jalonen returns to the Olympics as defending champion: there was in fact him at the helm of golden Finland in Beijing 2022. Now for the 63-year-old comes a completely different challenge, namely to lead Italy in a tournament with a very high technical rate given the return of NHL players after a good 12 years. “It was not easy to make the choices because between different profiles the differences are subtle but we are still convinced that we have selected the best possible team for this event. All players were contacted individually, those who will not be there anyway can play for their place for the upcoming Top Division World Cup, the idea of me and the staff is to have an expanded group of 35 players from which we can identify the right profiles.”

The head coach of the Azzurri goes on to explain, “I never like to talk about individuals, every player in Italy will have his role to respect for the good of the group. At the level of goalies for example I think it is wrong to talk about first, second or third goalkeeper. We will evaluate training after training and also according to sensations. As for the movement players, their ability to play special situations and to be able to adapt to the system of play also matters a lot.”

Descending into the analysis of the choices, thus Jukka Jalonen: “We count on using all the players called up, while knowing that at each game there will be three elements that will be left off the roster (two movement players and a goalkeeper ed.). The most important thing, and what we expect, is to have a team that knows how to keep up continuity within the same game: we don’t look at the score or the single moment, but at the character that is fundamental to never give up and play hard from start to finish. We know that after the three matches in our group there will be a knockout playoff match, that will have to be our goal.”

The CONVOCATED

KEEPERS
Damian Clara (Brynäs IF/Sweden)
Davide Fadani (Kloten/Switzerland)
Gianluca Vallini (HC Bolzano)

DEFENSORS
Dylan Di Perna (HC Bolzano)
Gregory Di Tomaso (HC Val Pusteria)
Daniel Glira (HC Val Pusteria)
Thomas Larkin (Schwenninger Wild Wings/Germany)
Phil Pietroniro (Rytiri Kladno/Czech Republic)
Jason Seed (HC Bolzano)
Alex Trivellato (Schwenninger Wild Wings/Germany)
Luca Zanatta (HC Val Pusteria)

ATTACKERS
Matthew Bradley (HC Bolzano)
Tommaso De Luca (Ambrì Piotta/Switzerland)
Cristiano DiGiacinto (HC Bolzano)
Luca Frigo (HC Bolzano)
Mikael Frycklund (HC Val Pusteria)
Dustin Gazley (HC Bolzano)
Diego Kostner (Ambrì Piotta/Switzerland)
Daniel Mantenuto (HC Bolzano)
Giovanni Morini (Lugano/Switzerland)
Alexander Petan (Olimpija Ljubljana/Slovenia)
Tommy Purdeller (HC Val Pusteria)
Nick Saracino (HC Val Pusteria)
Alessandro Segafredo (ZSC Lions Zurich/Switzerland)
Marco Zanetti (HC Lugano/Switzerland)

RISERVE AT HOME
Goalkeepers: Jacob Smith (Angers/France), Rudy Rigoni (HC Asiago). Defensemen: Peter Spornberger (ERC Ingolstadt/Germany), Enrico Miglioranzi (HC Bolzano), Terrance Amorosa (Herning Blue Fox/Denmark), Gregorio Gios (HC Asiago). Forwards: Alex Ierullo (HC Val Pusteria), Matthias Mantinger (HC Val Pusteria), Pascal Brunner (HC Bolzano), Bryce Misley (HC Bolzano), Julius Ramoser (Grizzlys Wolfsburg/Germany), Daniel Tedesco (Glasgow Clan/UK)