The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina are set to kick off on Feb. 4, with the men's hockey tournament beginning on Feb. 11. Team Finland will play in one of the first games of the tournament, facing off against Slovakia. The Finns hope to bring home gold this year, but injuries have already been an issue for the team.
Now, the roster has another change due to injury. Boston Bruins' netminder Joonas Korpisalo has been added to the Team Finland roster as an injury replacement, according to a release from the Bruins.
The Finnish netminder is in his second season with the Bruins, and will be representing his home country for the first time since the 2017 World Championships. He was solid in those games, going 3-2-1 with a 3.32 goals-against average and a .897 save percentage. Still, he has not been chosen for a national team roster since then. At the 4 Nations Face-Off, Finland had Kevin Lankinen, Juuse Saros, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen on the roster.
The same three netminders were on the initial roster for Finland, but Luukkonen will not be playing in the tournament due to a lower-body injury. With the addition of Korpisalo to the Finnish roster, he becomes the ninth member of the Bruins to be named to an Olympic team.
He joins blueliner Henri Jokiharju with the Finns, while his fellow goaltender, Jeremy Swayman, will be playing for Team USA. He will also see two of his teammates take the ice live, as Finland faces Sweden in the preliminary rounds. Hampus Lindholm and Elias Lindholm are both on the Swedish roster.
The other Bruins participating are Dans Locmelis (Latvia), Charlie McAvoy (USA), David Pastrnak (Czechia) and Pavel Zacha (Czechia).
Korpisalo has been solid backing up Swayman in Beantown this season. He is 10-8-1, while the Bruins are 32-20-4 on the campaign. That is good for fifth in the Atlantic Division, but also the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
He will likely not see the ice again before the Olympics. The Bruins have just one game left, taking to the ice on Wednesday against the Florida Panthers.
