February 17, 2026
Men's hockey at the Winter Olympics in Italy is progressing into the medal rounds.
The countries of all three current Flyers – Travis Sanheim of Canada, Dan Vladar of Czechia, and Rasmus Ristolainen of Finland – are all still skating, while a former Flyers fan favorite just took the final skate of his playing career.
Here's a rundown of how the Flyers at the Olympics have been holding up...
Ristolainen's plus-8 rating is tied for the Olympic lead in the plus-minus category if you can believe that.
It's him and Canada's Devon Toews (of the Colorado Avalanche) in first, followed by superstars Cale Makar (Canada, Colorado), Connor McDavid (Canada, Edmonton), and Ristolainen's defensive partner Niko Mikkola (Florida) in a three-way tie for second at plus-7 each.
Who had that one on their bingo card?
Granted, Ristolainen was probably always going to have the best stat line of any Flyer at the Olympics.
The big defenseman's role on Team Finland was easily the most certain, and in turn, had the most minutes available.
Ristolainen has averaged 19:23 of ice time in his three Olympic games so far, and collected two assists in Saturday's 11-0 drubbing of Italy.
Ristolainen finished that blowout with three shots on goal and a plus-5 rating after 18:22, which definitely did his stat line a huge favor.
Finland will face Switzerland in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Sanheim made Team Canada's loaded roster as a depth defenseman, and was a scratch for the country's 5-0 opening win against Czechia on Thursday.
An injury to blueliner Josh Morrissey (of the Winnipeg Jets) during that contest created an opening, though, and a chance for the Flyers' leading defenseman to step in.
Sanheim skated as a seventh defenseman, mostly rotating in to go alongside LA Kings veteran Drew Doughty on the bottom pairing for Canada's last two games against Switzerland (a 5-1 win) and France (a 10-2 blowout).
Sanheim skated just 10:17 against the Swiss on Friday, but went plus-2. Against France on Sunday, he skated a far more substantial 18:53, went plus-3, and put two shots on goal.
The 29-year-old is plus-5 in total across his two Olympic games so far, and while he hasn't been overly noticeable, he has been dependable, which is all a team ever really needs out of its bottom defensive pairing.
Canada dominated its way to the men's quarterfinals, where it will play Czechia on Wednesday after winning its qualifying play-off on Tuesday over Denmark 3-2.
Morrissey's injury was never believed to keep him out for the rest of the Olympics, and he has returned to practice, which could bump Sanheim back out of the lineup if Morrissey is all good to go for the medal rounds.
Vladar's lone start in goal for Czechia was its lone win for the tournament before Tuesday.
The Flyers goalie had the crease against France on Friday, and Czechia prevailed 6-3, but not before France went on a run of three unanswered goals through the second period, which put Czechia in a 3-2 hole to dig out of. Vladar only saw 12 shots from France in total.
Lukas Dostal (of the Anaheim Ducks) has been Czechia's leading netminder otherwise.
They lost both of his first two starts against Canada (5-0) and Switzerland (4-3 in overtime), but Dostal got the call for Czechia's play-off qualifier against Denmark, and stopped 24 of 26 shots for a 3-2 win that pushed them into the quarterfinals.
More than likely, Czechia will ride with Dostal to the end.
Bellemare scored France's lone goal in their play-off qualifier loss to Germany, 5-1, on Tuesday.
With that, the 40-year-old is putting a bow on an adventure of a playing career.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare says, “This is it.”
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) February 17, 2026
Asked if he could play in 2030 — when France hosts — Bellemare said physically, he feels he could, but he owes it to his family to stop.
No more moving around, deciding which toys his young children can keep; allowing his wife to… pic.twitter.com/pHJkghqdtw
Bellemare spent years building up a professional career, first in his native France, and then across Europe, up until the NHL became a realistic next step for a little-known French forward.
At 29-years-old, the Flyers were the team to take a chance on him with a two-way contract offered and signed in the summer of 2014.
He came into training camp a few months later and made it impossible to be turned away.
Bellemare made the roster, made himself a dependable checking forward in the bottom six, and made himself a favorite among the fans and within the organization for the next couple of years while he was at it.
The Flyers grew to hold him in such high regard during his three-season stay in Philadelphia that, after the 2017 trade deadline, they put the alternate captaincy letter on his jersey for the last couple of months.
It was the ultimate goodwill gesture for the journeyman, though all while knowing the Vegas Golden Knights were on their way and bringing the expansion draft along with them. Bellemare, by that point, was long believed to be the one the Flyers would make available for it, and was ultimately who Vegas did select.
He ended up helping to push the Knights all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season, and played six more years after with Vegas, Tampa Bay, Colorado, and then Seattle to make it a full and improbable decade in the NHL, before going back to Europe in 2024.
This final Olympic run with France, regardless of the outcome, was his victory lap.
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