The NHL has always sent a strong contingent of Colorado Avalanche players to the Olympics. Joe Sakic for Canada and Peter Forsberg for Sweden are two names that always come to mind. With NHL players coming back to the Olympics for the first time since 2014, rosters are a bit of a mystery. With the Avalanche, there are a few players that are a lock in. On Monday, all the taking part countries released their first six players to their rosters.

Sweden

Despite playing only five games since his return from injury, Team Sweden named Gabriel Landeskog to the team. This will be the second time that the captain will represent his country at the Olympics. The last time he did, he won a Silver Medal. The game that determined the medal was against then teammate Matt Duchene and Team Canada.

Czechia

This will be the first time that forward Martin Necas will represent Czechia at the Olympic games. He has represented his country on multiple occasions, from the World Championships to the Juniors. Necas will probably be a top-six forward so the European team can bring a good mix of defense and offense to the table.

Canada

As we all expected, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar were among the first six named to Team Canada. For MacKinnon, it will be the third time in 12 months that he will represent his native Canada. During the Four Nations Faceoff, he helped the country take home the trophy along with teammates Devon Toews and Makar. Other than the Four Nations, this will be the first time that Makar will represent Canada since he played for the Juniors team in 2017. There were questions until about a year ago on whether Makar could take part because of an incident involving other players on the team. Officials have cleared Makar to play for Team Canada.

With the NHL returning to the Olympics, teams like Canada, Finland, USA and Sweden will all be powerhouses. Over the last few tournaments, amateurs have filled the ranks for the countries, making for low viewership. This will bring excitement back to the Olympics in a way that we have not seen since 2014 in Sochi, Russia. We can also expect more players from the Avalanche like Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews and Brock Nelson to be named to their respective rosters.