Ex-Maple Leaf Predicts Big 2026 Olympic Moment for Auston Matthews as Team USA Captain

Auston Matthews will play his first Olympic game with Team USA on Thursday when the Americans face Latvia in Milan, Italy, and at least one former Maple Leaf believes Matthews is poised for a major career moment at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan.

Speaking on OverDrive, former Toronto forward and current NHL on TNT analyst Eddie Olczyk addressed Matthews’ performance at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, where the newly minted Team USA captain came agonizingly close to delivering a championship but fell short in overtime against Canada.

“The Four-Nation Championship was on his stick, and he had some great chances,” Olczyk said. “That’s all you want. You want your best players to have a chance to be able to do it. So kudos to him for creating the chances. Now you’d like to see him be able to cash in.”

Olczyk shared that he sees it as a stepping stone to Olympic glory. The former NHL center believes Matthews has matured into a more complete player over the past few years.

“I believe that he is going to have an impact in this Olympic Games for Team USA,” Olczyk said. “I think he has come a long way in the last handful of years on being that type of player that can still make a difference, even though he isn’t scoring.”

He said that Matthews’ potential Olympic moment might not necessarily come in the form of a highlight-reel goal. 

“I think that he is going to need to finish off a play,” he explained. “That could be an assist, that could be a goal, I don’t know, but I just do have a feeling.”

Matthews enters his first Olympic tournament with an impressive international resume for Team USA. He has won gold medals at both the 2014 and 2015 U18 World Championships, earning MVP, Best Forward and tournament top scorer honors in 2015. He also helped the United States win bronze at the 2016 World Junior.

Olympics Success Could Help Change Things in Toronto for Auston Matthews

Auston Matthews’ opportunity at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan could also fundamentally shift the surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs captain back home per Olczyk.

During the segment, the NHL on TNT analyst shared that he believes a strong showing on the Olympic stage could quiet Matthews’ critics and change the conversation in Toronto, at least temporarily.

“If he comes up large on the biggest stage, and it is right in the middle of something great for Team USA, I think whatever doubters people may have, I think they probably should back off a tad,” Olczyk said.

However, the former NHLer who understands the pressure of playing in Toronto from his own time as an alternate captain with the Leafs in the late 1980s, acknowledged that even Olympic success won’t permanently change expectations in hockey-mad Toronto.

“This is the Olympics, and then once you get back and put on the blue and white, people just can be worried about one thing: when’s the next time the Leafs are going to make a serious run and eventually win the Stanley Cup?” Olczyk said.

Back in Toronto, the Maple Leafs sit seventh in the Atlantic Division with a 27-21-9 record. The team had won three straight games heading into the Olympic break. They’re seven points behind the fifth-place Bruins and trail the division-leading Red Wings by nine points. Toronto resumes play on Feb. 25th against Tampa Bay.

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