Vladimir Orszagh will coach Slovakia at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
The 48-year-old replaces Craig Ramsay, who coached Slovakia’s national team since the 2017-18 season, including at the Olympics in 2018 and 2022, when Slovakia won the bronze medal.
Orszagh coached Slovakia at the 2025 IIHF World Championship after Ramsay had to leave the team just before the start of the tournament because of pneumonia. Slovakia finished 11th among 16 teams. Orszagh was an assistant on Ramsay’s staff at the Olympics and World Championship in 2018, and this season will be his second as coach of Banska Bystrica in Slovakia’s top professional league.
He played professional hockey for 14 seasons, including 119 points (54 goals, 65 assists) in 289 NHL games as a forward with the New York Islanders, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues from 1997-2006. He was selected by the Islanders in the fifth round (No. 106) of the 1995 NHL Draft.
Orszagh also played for Slovakia at the World Championship five times and at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.
The 2026 Olympic tournament will be held Feb. 11-22, with NHL players participating for the first time since 2014.
The first six players named to the roster in June were defensemen Erik Cernak (Tampa Bay Lightning), Martin Fehervary (Washington Capitals) and Simon Nemec (New Jersey Devils), and forwards Martin Pospisil (Calgary Flames), Juraj Slafkovsky (Montreal Canadiens) and Tomas Tatar. The remainder of the roster will be announced later this year.
Ramsay, 74, won the Stanley Cup as an assistant coach with the Lightning in 2004, and worked as a coach or in the front office with the Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, Dallas Stars, Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Flyers, Lightning, Boston Bruins, Atlanta Thrashers, Edmonton Oilers and Canadiens from when he retired as a player in 1985 until 2017.
He coached Slovakia to the quarterfinals at the World Championship three times (2021, 2022, 2024) in six tournaments.