How surprising is Adam Fox’s omission from United States’ Olympic roster?

The New York Rangers won’t have to worry about Adam Fox getting injured at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympics — he’s not going. 

On Friday, as Team USA unveiled the selected players for the first Olympics with NHL players since Sochi 2014, general manager Bill Guerin opted not to take the Rangers blueliner, automatically making the 27-year-old one of the most significant snubs from Olympic rosters. 

Hours after the announcement and before Fox took the ice in the NHL Winter Classic against the Florida Panthers, Daily Faceoff LIVE, live with Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL video coach Steve Peters, and Morning Cuppa Hockey co-host Jonny Lazarus broke down his Olympic snub. 

Tyler Yaremchuk: We’ll start with Team USA. The one big omission on the blue line is Adam Fox. How surprised are you that he isn’t going to Milan?

Johnny Lazarus: People forget that Adam Fox was one of the first six players named to the 4 Nations Face-Off roster for Team USA That’s how highly touted he was before that tournament. I know it wasn’t his best tournament, but when you look at it from goalscoring, you look at Team Canada, Connor McDavid and Nathan McKinnon combined for seven goals in that tournament, while Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes, none of them scored a goal in the entire tournament for the USA. You look at that, the big guns for Canada versus the big guns for the USA….but it comes down to one goal, right? 

I don’t think Team USA had to overthink this roster because they were right there, neck-and-neck, toe-to-toe with Team Canada. Not only did they outplay him in the final and the game in Montreal and win that game, but they were one shot away. Matthews had like three game-breaking chances in overtime before Conor McDavid scored the goal. 

For me, the way that Adam Fox’s whole narrative, career, reputation, ego, whatever word you want to use about him, after that tournament. Say unfair is the word, like every player should face criticism when it’s warranted, and he should face criticism for that tournament. Still, to sit here and say like he’s not one of the best players and one of the best defensemen in the NHL, let alone a top eight defenseman from America, I think that’s just a big stretch. 

You can catch the full episode and Team USA Olympic roster breakdown here…