With the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics beginning this week, the Italian ice hockey teams are set and ready to represent the home country.
Closely inspecting the rosters for the “Azzurri” reveals that there are two men and three women hockey players who were born in the United States.
There are also seven men and five women from Canada, the birthplace of hockey.
As mentioned in my previous article titled ‘Amore-cans’, there is a strong attraction to Italy by those born in America.
Many of these U.S. and Canadian athletes also have Italian ancestors and/or family names.
Somewhere along the line their families made their way to North America, and these players fell in love with the sport of ice hockey.
All nine men and eight women became naturalized Italian citizens and satisfied the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) requirement that they live in Italy for at least 16 months prior to donning an Italian national team jersey.
Now with the Winter Olympic hockey coming to Milano, we will dive deeper into the stories of how some of these North American athletes made their way back to Italy for this year’s Winter Games.
One of the most illustrative examples is Dustin Gazley who grew up not far from Detroit, Michigan in the 1990’s when ice hockey was booming.
The Detroit Red Wings were not only a storied “Original 6” NHL franchise, but they also earned their city the nickname “Hockeytown” en route to back-to-back championships in ’97 and ’98.
While he remained in Michigan throughout his junior and college hockey career, Dustin also reconnected with his Italian heritage.
In the 2000’s he earned Italian citizenship due to his mother’s Sicilian roots while cheering on the Red Wings to two more Stanley Cups ’02 and ‘08.
Love for ice hockey developed from an early age for the player in Hockeytown, but the Italian bloodline commenced way back in the Trinacria (referring to Sicily’s three headlands).
After toiling in the minor leagues for many years followed by short stops in Austria and Sweden, Gazley found his way to Bolzano, Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the years that followed, he was joined on the Bolzano Foxes by fellow 2026 Olympians Dylan DiPerna, Cristiano DiGiacinto, Matt Bradley and Jason Seed.
Bolzano is currently one of two Italian club teams who, along with HC Pustertal, compete in the ICEHL (International Central European Hockey League) and represent the highest level of professional hockey in Italy.
HC Bolzano joined the primarily Austrian ice hockey league in 2013 to face higher quality competition, and it is no surprise that many of the best Italian hockey players choose to play there. Canadian-born Greg DiTomaso and U.S. native Nicholas Saracino are two Italian Olympians who play for the rival Pustertal, who joined the ICEHL in 2021.
Phil Pietroniro and Alex Petan are two Canadians who started playing in Italy in 2017 but have since also played in France, Slovakia, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, and Slovenia while continuing to represent Italy in international tournaments.
The Italian women’s hockey team has an arguably better opportunity than the men to crack the podium at the 2026 Olympics, thanks to star-power North American born players such as Kristin Della Rovere, Justine Reyes, Kristen Guerriero, and Laura Fortino.
Della Rovere, a forward, and Guerriero, a defenseman, have teamed up to be a formidable duo for Bolzano’s women’s team, the EV Bozen Eagles.
The captain of the Eagles is Italian-American Jacquie Pierri, who brings her leadership and four straight Italian Hockey League Women’s titles to the national team.
The aforementioned Fortino is also well-decorated, having previously won an Olympic gold medal playing for Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Following a long career in North America where she won multiple team championships at all levels and Canadian Women’s Hockey League defenseman of the year in 2016, Laura Fortino brought her talents to Bolzano in 2023 and will make her Italian national team debut in the Milano Olympics.
The North American contingent doesn’t end there, as veteran players Amie Varano and Kayla Tutino as well as backup goaltender Gabriella Durante will join the others on the Italian women’s ice hockey team.
Thanks to all these wonderful additions, Italian ice hockey has gained a wealth of expertise and experience from North American players who have had exposure to the best leagues in the world.
Their remarkable integration with native Italian players to form an Olympic team on Italian soil resembles the hockey technique of “regrouping” in which all players gather in their defensive zone in anticipation of reorganizing and mounting an attack.
Such an internationalization of the team will likely enhance Italy’s ability to compete on their home ice against international opponents this February.
On the first day of Olympic competition in Milano, February 5th, the Italian women’s hockey team won their first game in a landslide victory over alpine rival France.
The hope is that the host country can carry forward this success throughout the Olympics and into future hockey tournaments. With the infusion of North Americans and momentum that will be created in Milano-Cortina 2026, we could be witnessing the ignition of a lasting new era for Italian hockey.