Could David Pastrnak be a dark horse Olympic MVP pick? 

With the men’s hockey Olympic tournament officially underway, it’s never too early to start weighing the candidates for MVP honors.

In 2022, a 17-year-old Juraj Slafkovsky took home the award as he helped lead Slovakia to the bronze medal. After just one game this time around, Slafkovsky is making his case with a two-goal effort in an upset win over Finland.

But aside from Slafkovsky and the favorites for the United States and Canada, why not Czechia star David Pastrnak? The veteran scorer carried the Czechs to gold at the 2024 World Championships, and he has the necessary talent and quality line mates to set him up to produce in bunches in Milan.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed why Pastrnak could be a sleeper to take home MVP honors, even if Czechia does not claim the gold medal.

Tyler Yaremchuk: So when this tournament happened back in 2022, it was 17 year old Juraj Slfvkovsky who won MVP, even though Slovakia won bronze. And I think it’s interesting to look back at the history of that MVP award. It doesn’t always go to a team who made the final, even in the case of Slovakia. It doesn’t always go to the winning team. If you’re looking for a little bit of a sleeper, Hutts, I’ll go with your Czechia pick. If Czechia is going to go on a run… what about David Pastrnak? Like, if they’re going to go on a run, can you not see there being a world where Pastrnak ends this tournament with six to eight goals, somewhere in that range?

Carter Hutton: Those are the games too, where there are going to be outlier games too, where somebody runs it up against France or Italy, or just someone has a big night, And I think Pastrnak is the guy to do it. That’s why I think this team is dangerous. I think they’re going to get to their game early, and when you look at their power play and their offensive number one line, they are going to be able to create. So this is just a fun, exciting tournament. I hope I didn’t give them the kiss of death, right? Because I’ve been hyping up Czechia. You know, they’re kind of my dark horse. But being in media, Ty, we’ve got to make a stand and try to pick teams outside of the norm, and that’s the team I’m going with.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…