Switzerland’s Kevin Fiala stretchered off with injury vs. Canada, will miss rest of Olympic tournament
After already dealing with two other injuries during Friday night’s 5-1 loss to Canada, Switzerland suffered their biggest blow yet, as Kevin Fiala had to be stretchered off the ice after sustaining an injury. According to Swiss Ice Hockey, Fiala will miss the rest of the 2026 Winter Olympics with the injury.
🩼 Kevin Fiala was injured in the second group game against Canada and will miss the rest of the Olympic tournament. ❤️🩹 Kevin Fiala hat sich im zweiten Gruppenspiel gegen Kanada verletzt und fällt für den Rest des Olympia-Turniers aus. 👉🏼 tinyurl.com/kevin-fiala-ve… @LAKings
Fiala sustained the injury in the final minutes of the loss after a collision with Tom Wilson in the Canada zone. While Wilson is well known for his borderline physical play in the NHL, no foul play was involved in this hit, as he was simply playing the body, and the aftermath of the hit caused Wilson to fall on Fiala’s lower body.
“It’s kind of a nothing play,” Wilson said to reporters after the game. “It happens a lot, every night, and it was just unlucky.
“He’s a tough kid. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t scream, he didn’t really say any emotion at all. So I didn’t know how serious it was. And then when we watched the replay, you could see his foot kind of got caught in the ice and I fell on that leg. We get tangled up so much, and unfortunately on that one his leg got caught underneath and it didn’t look good. But he’s a tough kid, and I’m wishing him the best.”
Kevin Fiala was taken to hospital, Swiss coach Patrick Fischer says.
Fiala had to be taken to the hospital, according to Swiss head coach Patrick Fischer. Beyond that, nothing is known about his injury, including the specifics of it, although it wouldn’t be surprising if it was something in the lower body considering the impact. It is known that he’ll miss the rest of the Olympics with the injury, but his status for his NHL club, the Los Angeles Kings, is not known at this point.
“I want that guy on my team back home big time,” Canadian defenseman and Fiala’s Kings teammate Drew Doughty said after the game. “Yeah, that’s not something I wanted, obviously, to happen. I’m going to go find him right now and see how he’s doing.
“I think every single player is going to tell you they want to come play. So unfortunately that happened, but hopefully he recovers quick.”
Fiala had just one shot in 20:04 of ice time in the loss for Switzerland. If this is the end of the tournament for him, he finishes with one assist in two games, collecting an apple on the fourth goal of Switzerland’s 4-0 win over France on Thursday.
Fiala is in the midst of a down season in the NHL, as he has 18 goals and 22 assists for 40 points in 56 games with the Kings. It’s currently the worst point-per-game production since his breakout season in 2019-20.
The injury is a big blow to Switzerland’s lineup, as Fiala is one of just 11 NHL players in their lineup. Not only that, but he’s one of their best NHLers too, as he ranks second among Swiss players in career NHL points, and is third in points per game.
The injury is also a big blow as Switzerland also lost two other important players in the loss to Canada. Both Denis Malgin and Andrea Glauser also sustained injuries in the game, coming much earlier in the game. Both players played key roles high in the Swiss lineup.
Switzerland currently sits in second in Group A with a 1-0-0-1 record and a 0 goal differential. They’ll look to clinch second in the group and possibly try to get a bye to the quarterfinals when they play Czechia on Sunday at 6:10 a.m. ET.