Jackson LaCombe’s late-season surge for Anaheim just earned him a last-second ticket to Milan, vaulting the 25-year-old defenseman onto the U.S. Olympic roster after Seth Jones was ruled out with a fractured collarbone.
USA Hockey dropped the bombshell Wednesday: Seth Jones’s Winter Classic collarbone fracture will keep him out of the 2026 Milan Games, and Jackson LaCombe — Anaheim’s 2019 second-round steal — is the plug-and-play answer.
Why this swap changes everything
LaCombe isn’t a like-for-like substitute. Jones, 31, logs 24-plus minutes a night for Florida and is the NHL’s active iron-man leader in regular-season ice time. LaCombe, 25, has never cracked 20 minutes at the NHL level — until this season.
What he brings instead is elite puck-moving efficiency. Among U.S.-born blueliners with 40-plus games, LaCombe ranks:
- Second in 5-on-5 shot-assist rate (19.2 per 60)
- Third in possession exit percentage (58%)
- Fifth in expected goals-for share (54.3%)
Translation: he tilts the ice without needing top-pair minutes, the exact profile USA’s brain trust craved for a third-pair, power-play specialist role behind Quinn Hughes and Zach Werenski.
From World Champion to Olympic rookie in eight months
Fans forget LaCombe was the quiet engine on the gold-medal squad at the 2025 IIHF Worlds — America’s first world title since 1933. He averaged 17:38, led the team with a plus-9, and unleashed the breakout pass that sprung Matthew Tkachuk for the OT winner in the semifinal versus Sweden.
That résumé made him the emergency list headliner when Jones went down on Jan. 2 at the Winter Classic. Doctors inserted a plate and screws, but a six-week recovery window officially collided with the Feb. 12 Olympic opener against Latvia.
How the U.S. blue-line puzzle now fits
Coach John Hynes can roll three mobile pairs without matchup fear:
- Hughes – Faber (shutdown plus transition)
- Werenski – McAvoy (offense plus physical edge)
- Hanifin – LaCombe (speed, southpaw balance, second power-play wave)
LaCombe’s left shot also frees Jaccob Slavin to slide to the right side in heavy defensive situations, a tweak that paid dividends at the 2025 Worlds.
Contract stakes and trade winds
The timing is golden for LaCombe personally. He’s a pending RFA with arbitration rights this summer. An Olympic point-per-game cameo would turbo-charge his next payday — think Neal Pionk money (four years, $24 M) rather than the Erik Brannstrom tier.
For Anaheim, the exposure is double-edged. GM Pat Verbeek has resisted trade overtures all year, but a strong Olympic showing could turn late-season contenders into aggressive bidders. The Ducks own three first-rounders in 2026; packaging LaCombe for a veteran top-four righty is suddenly a realistic June pivot.
Bottom line
USA Hockey loses a battle-tested horse in Jones, yet gains a stylistic counter-punch who already delivered under the five-ring pressure cooker. If LaCombe’s 2025 Worlds encore is any clue, the Americans may have accidentally uncovered their secret weapon on the road to ending a 46-year Olympic gold drought.
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