Brock Nelson has earned the chance to continue a great family tradition.
Nelson was named to the United States hockey team Friday morning for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. He will be a third-generation Olympian in his family. Nelson’s uncle, Dave Christian, won gold in 1980 with the “Miracle on Ice” team at Lake Placid.
His grandfather and great-uncle, Bill and Roger Christian, were members of the 1960 U.S. team that won gold in Squaw Valley, Calif. One of their brothers, Gord, won a silver medal with the 1956 U.S. team in Italy.
Nelson was a marquee acquisition for the Colorado Avalanche just before the trade deadline last season, then he signed a three-year contract with the club in early June. He has been Colorado’s No. 2 center since the day he arrived from Long Island after a long, productive tenure with the New York Islanders.
“The center ice position is such an important position,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “You have to be a four-line team in order to win and your top six has to to be really good. If you’re missing that piece, it almost doesn’t matter how good your wingers are. We’ve got elite wingers on our second line.
“But if you’re missing that middle piece — take (Nathan) McKinnon off the first line, put a different center there — it’s not the same. If you take Nelson off the second line, put a different center there, it’s not the same. You need the production out of those guys. You need them to be able to play against anybody, and you need them to be able to defend against anybody. Brock does that, and then he touches every aspect of our game — power play, penalty kill — on top of that.”
Nelson’s all-around play is a huge reason why he will play for the Americans in Northern Italy. He was on Team USA for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off this past February, which lost to Canada in overtime in the final.
His play in that short tournament, and his age — Nelson will turn 35 years old in April — led plenty of prognosticators to leave him off projected Olympic rosters for much of the past 11 months.
Nelson also got off to a slow start, production-wise, in his first full season with the Avalanche. But he’s been on a tear at just the right time.
The rangy center has 16 goals and 30 points in 39 games for the Avs this season. He has 13 goals and 25 points in his past 23 contests, in which Colorado has gone 20-1-2.
At 6-foot-4 with great skating ability, Nelson has arguably been even better on the defensive side of the puck for the Avs. Colorado has produced 61.1% of the expected goals with Nelson on the ice at 5-on-5, despite Bednar often leaning on his line to match up against the other team’s top players.
That’s second on the team among the forwards, behind only Valeri Nichushkin, and fourth in the NHL among forwards with 300-plus minutes played at 5-on-5.
Nelson is also third among the Avs’ forwards in time on ice on the penalty kill, which is ranked No. 1 in the NHL at 85.7%.
“He’s huge,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “He’s been so solid for us at both ends of the rink. He’s been getting rewarded here with some goals.
“You can tell he’s playing with a lot of confidence. It’s fun to see. He’s just as important to this team as anybody else.”
The tournament begins Feb. 11. Nelson and the Americans will face Latvia on Feb. 12, Denmark on Feb. 14 and Germany on Feb. 15 in the preliminary round.
Canada, which will feature a trio of Avs — Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Devon Toews — will be looking to defend its 4 Nations crown but also win gold at the Olympics for the third straight time when NHL players participate.
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