The Philadelphia Flyers had limited representatives at the 2026 Winter Olympics. While other teams around the NHL were able to send off their star-level players and see them take charge, wear letters, and score a bunch of points while pundits around the sport praised them on the international stage; the Flyers did not.
It was Rasmus Ristolainen serving as a top-four defenseman for Finland and winning a bronze medal thanks to his strong presence on the backend, Dan Vladar being Czechia’s second option in the crease, and then Travis Sanheim play a familiar role for Team Canada. While Ristolainen and Vladar played important roles for their country, there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of expectation coming from those parties — if either Finland or Czechia finished with a medal, or even reached the medal round, it would be more than most thought they could achieve.
But for Sanheim and Team Canada, it was really gold or bust. To keep up a level or domination over the sport and massive control — to be able to continue the narrative that it was Canada’s sport and everything starts and stops with them. As we all know by now, they did not come to fruition. Thanks to Jack Hughes’s overtime heroics, the United States were able to win Olympic gold for the first time since that tournament they made a bunch of movies about.
And with that pressure, the microanalysis over every single little thing rises to the top and Sanheim’s name was thrown around with ease. Despite starting the Olympics and the 4 Nations Face-Off tournaments as the extra defender and then be brought in due to injury or underperformance, and then hold that position, Sanheim’s inclusion on the roster was seen as a mistake. And all the way up through the gold medal game on Sunday morning, there were doubters that he could even make anything happen on the ice.
Travis Sanheim proved doubters wrong at the 2026 Winter Olympics
So many Canadians were clamoring for the defensively inept Evan Bouchard to be a part of the team instead, or have some other random defenseman take over from Sanheim — and he was the easy target since no one really thinks a whole lot about the Flyers on the national stage. But instead, while Sanheim did not walk away with a gold medal and we would be showered with pictures of him smiling and posing with the top achievement in international hockey, he proved that he belonged to play at that level.
After starting the tournament off the ice and only being brought in thanks to Josh Morrissey’s injury, Sanheim made his quiet impact almost right away. Because that’s the thing with Sanheim playing his best hockey — it’s not loud or boisterous. When the Flyers defenseman is truly at the peak of his impact, he’s swiftly transitioning the puck up the ice, setting up some plays, being able to support the forwards in the offensive zone, and be a nuisance for the opposition with his top-level gap control and being able to keep forwards to the outside.
And guess what? Sanheim did all of that in the five games he played at the Winter Olympics. There were multiple times were he stood out as he drove to the net and tried to serve up a goal-creating pass to a teammate in the slot, but nothing came to fruition. Those were the moments that most can point to as examples of his positive impact on the ice, but extremely quietly, Sanheim was more than effective at controlling the play.
If you want to put a number to it, Sanheim earned one of the best plus/minus ratings of the entire tournament. On Team Canada, only Devon Toews had better than Sanheim’s plus-6 rating, as he somehow had a plus-9. Macklin Celebrini tied Sanheim’s rating, but other than that everyone on that team was on the ice for a lesser goal differential. But it also came down to some individual efforts, too.
According to hockeystats.com, Sanheim tied for the most inner-slot shots among defensemen in the entire tournament. Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Toews, and Sanheim all had three of those high-danger opportunities — and considering Sanheim had at least 40 fewer shifts than those all-star defensemen, it’s extremely impressive. Hell, Makar had a total of 176 shifts at the Olympics, and Sanheim had just 102. To be able to have that amount of individual offense, caused by his ability to cut and skirt around defenders well while moving the puck up the ice, is a very good sign of where the Flyers defenseman’s performance is at.
There is just an innate level of security that washes over us when Sanheim is on the ice. Sure, he can make a defensive gaff like any other NHL defenseman, but he is just the definition of solid and has controlled play at a very good level for the past few years. Now, we’re just glad he was able to rise to the Olympic occasion and in the biggest games of his career, was the same Travis Sanheim we know in Philadelphia.
