Ducks forward to help Slovakia qualify for 2026 Olympics

After representing Slovakia at the World Championships this past summer, Pavol Regenda is now part of the team that will play in the final qualification tournaments for the 2026 Olympics. The tournaments, which consist of three groups of four teams each, will be held from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 in Bratislava, Riga and Aalborg.

Slovakia narrowly missed out on qualifying directly for the 2026 Olympics after being ranked ninth in the IIHF World Ranking system after the 2023 World Championships. Teams in the top eight qualified directly.

Along with Regenda, Slovakia returns several other players from their 2024 World Championships team. Tomáš Tatar, Šimon Nemec, Martin Pospíšil, Patrik Koch and Miloš Kelemen have already been confirmed as members of the team seeking Olympic qualification. Regenda and Kelemen were linemates at Worlds and displayed strong chemistry.

Slovakia has the chance to qualify for the 2026 Olympics on home ice as one of the host countries for the final qualifying tournaments. Drawn into Group D, they will face Kazakhstan, Austria and Hungary.

Three out of 12 spots remain with the first nine taken by host country Italy and the eight automatic berths from the IIHF World Ranking. The teams that finish top in their respective groups of the final qualification tournament will take those three remaining spots.

It’s been a busy summer for Regenda, who signed a new deal with the Ducks in July and will have represented his country in international play twice before the start of the 2024-25 season.

A strong showing at the final qualifying tournament could give him momentum heading into training camp in September.