Olympic men’s hockey is underway, and not every nation is entering at full strength. Action Network created the Olympic Men’s Hockey Injury Burden Index to quantify roster strain across projected country player pools and pinpoint where the injury load is heaviest at tournament entry.
Built from the latest available injury reporting, this model is a starting-point context tool for evaluating how roster health may shape performance trends as the tournament unfolds.
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Key Findings
Sweden ranks No. 1 in injury burden, with 5 injured players out of 25 and a 10.68 Total Final Injury Severity Weight.
Switzerland (No. 2) and Canada (No. 3) follow as the next-most affected teams by total weighted burden.
Finland (No. 4) and Czechia (No. 5) round out the top five highest-burden countries.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, and the USA sit in the lowest-burden group in this dataset.
This model provides tournament-entry context, not a projection of final standings.
Most Injury-Affected Teams (Top 5)
1) Sweden
5 injured / 25 players, 10.68 Total Final Injury Severity Weight
Sweden leads by a clear margin, carrying the highest cumulative injury burden in the dataset.
2) Switzerland
2 injured / 10 players, 3.59 Total Final Injury Severity Weight
Switzerland ranks second despite a smaller player pool, showing how concentrated injury load can still produce a high total burden.
3) Canada
2 injured / 25 players, 3.29 Total Final Injury Severity Weight
Canada enters with a meaningful weighted injury load, placing third overall.
4) Finland
2 injured / 24 players, 2.98 Total Final Injury Severity Weight
Finland remains close to Canada in total burden and ranks fourth.
5) Czechia
1 injured / 13 players, 1.57 Total Final Injury Severity Weight
Czechia completes the top five on total weighted injury burden.
Top Individual Injury Burden Scores
Individual scores below are model index values (not percentages). They represent each player’s relative injury-related roster impact within the study window, where higher scores indicate greater projected strain.
Leo Carlsson (SWE) — 2.44
Gabriel Landeskog (SWE) — 2.22
Jonas Brodin (SWE) — 2.06
William Nylander (SWE) — 1.87
Pius Suter (SUI) — 1.87
Note: These values are based on the analysis snapshot and do not necessarily reflect real-time game-day availability. Some players listed may have returned, been activated, or had status changes after the data window.
The Other End of the Spectrum
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Denmark, France, Germany, Latvia, and the USA form the lowest-burden tier in this snapshot — teams entering on the safer side of roster health strain.
Why This Matters as the Tournament Progresses
Injury burden is more than a list of unavailable players. It can influence:
line chemistry and role continuity,
minute distribution across top units,
special-teams consistency,
goaltending workload and matchup flexibility.
By weighting player importance, injury severity, and injury timeline, this index offers stronger context than raw injury counts alone.
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Methodology — Olympic Men’s Hockey Injury Burden Index
To build the index, we used projected Olympic men’s player pools for each country and matched players to the latest available injury reporting.
Player data fields included
Team
Player name
Position
Country
Injury timeline (Day-to-Day, Week-to-Week, IR)
Injury status (OUT, IR, LTIR)
Injury type/reason (upper body, lower body, etc.)
Estimated return date (when available)
Blank injury fields were treated as no reported injury in the analysis window.
How each injured player was scored
Each injured player’s score is based on three multipliers:
1) Player Importance (role impact)
Tier 1 (1.5): Top-line forwards, top-pair defensemen, starting goalies
Tier 2 (1.0): Middle-six forwards, top-4 defensemen, backup goalies
Tier 3 (0.6): Depth/fringe players
2) Injury Severity
Surgery: 1.5
Concussion/Head: 1.4
Lower Body: 1.2
Upper Body: 1.1
Undisclosed: 1.0
Illness: 0.6
3) Recency Proxy (timeline-based)
Day-to-Day: 1.3
Week-to-Week: 1.1
No injury: 0
Final calculation
For each injured player:
Player Injury Score = Player Importance × Injury Severity × Recency Proxy
For each country:
Total Final Injury Severity Weight = Sum of all player injury scores
Countries are then ranked from highest total burden to lowest.
Sources
PuckPedia (primary injury source)
ESPN (cross-checking and return-date verification where available)
NHL.com / team reports (validation where available)
Editor’s Note
Player availability can shift during the tournament due to medical reassessment, return-to-play decisions, and late roster changes. This model reflects the latest available reporting at collection time and should be interpreted as a tournament-entry baseline, not a continuously updating live injury feed.
