The Winter Olympics is less than a month away, rosters are being finalized, and for anyone paying attention, there might be a familiar name on the USA National Hockey team: Jake Sanderson.
Sanderson is a Montana Native from Whitefish who has been playing hockey almost his whole life. This is not his first time playing on the National team with him being on the roster for the NHLs four National face off in February of 2025.
Sanderson is not the only person from Montana to have been selected to go to the winter Olympics. Freestyle skier Darian Stevens from Missoula went in 2018 and 2022.
Jake Sanderson- USA Hockey
Younger Years
Jake Sanderson was born in Whitefish, MT in 2002 until his family moved to Calgary, Alberta when he was 12.
Sanderson’s life has always revolved around hockey in one way or another. His dad, Geoff Sanderson, was a National Hockey League (NHL) player for 17 years. He first started playing in 1990 for the Hartford Whalers who later in 1997 was relocated and renamed California Hurricanes. Despite hockey being his dad’s love, he and his brother were never forced to play hockey and tried multiple sports throughout elementary and middle school.
Even though Sanderson played multiple sports, his own love for sports also landed in hockey.
He started playing when he was eight for the Glacier Hockey Association. His team was the Glacier Avalanches, a name taken from the famous NHL team, the Colorado Avalanches. With the Glacier Avalanches, Sanderson won his first banner, meaning his team won a significant championship title whether that is tournament, division, conference or league.
From the Avalanches, he played for the Springback Minor Hockey Association with a team called the Springback Rockies. He played and lived in Calgary for five years before he moved to Michigan. In those five years, Sanderson secured his position as a defenseman and hasn’t changed since.
When he moved to Michigan, he tied out and made the U.S. National U17 and U18 team. He excelled on the team, with him playing in 44 games when he was on the U17 team to then being named captain and had scored seven goals on the U18 team.
College Years
For college, Sanderson had been recruited by the University of North Dakota (UND) since he was 15, and he gave his verbal commitment while still playing on the U17 and U18 team. UND is known for being one of the top Men’s Hockey programs in the NCAA Division 1 program.
He only was in the program for two years but he accomplished a lot. From 2020-2022 he had ten goals and 31 assists and had +25 plus/minus. +25 plus/minus in hockey means that Sanderson was on the ice for 25 of his team’s goals either even strength or shorthanded over their opponent.
In his freshman season, he was named to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) All-Rookie team; during his sophomore year, he was named to Second-Team All NCHC. He was also switched to the First-Team all NCHC in his sophomore year and won the Penrose Cup in the 2021-2022 season. The Penrose Cup is awarded to the NCHC regular-season champion.
NHL Career So Far
Sanderson was drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 2020 for the NHL entry draft. The entry draft means that teams select young players who are still in college to secure their right to add the player to their roster after he has developed.
In the entry draft, Sanderson was selected in the first round as the 5th overall, being the only UND eighth player to go to the first round. He was Montana’s first-ever born player to get drafted.
He has been playing for the Ottawa Senators since October of 2022 and in the 2022-2023 season, he played 77 games, had four goals, and 28 assists.
Sanderson has only gotten better from there with eight goals and 21 assists in the 40 games he has played in the 2025-2026 season.
National Team Appearances
This year’s Olympics won’t be the first time Sanderson has played for the National team. He played in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.
The 4 Nations Face-Off is a competition between the USA, Canada, Sweden, and Finland. The USA met Canada in the championship where Sanderson scored an important goal that kept the USA in the game. Unfortunately, they fell second to Canada in the last period.
Past Olympian-Darian Stevens Freestyle Skiing
Darian Stevens was born and raised in Missoula, MT in 1996. Like many Missoulians, she started skiing at a very young age and learned at Snowbowl.
When she turned 14, she really started to take skiing seriously by entering into mogul competitions but later switched to freestyle. In 2011, she made her breakthrough at the U.S Grand Prix/FIS World Cup where she got sixth place.
She then went on to earn an invitation to the X games where she placed seventh, but her biggest accomplishment is going to the Winter Olympics twice in 2018 and 2022.
In the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, she placed 17th in the Women’s Slopestyle, and in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, she competed in two events: the Women’s Big Air where she got 11th and Slopestyle where she got 18th.
She then retired after the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Montana isn’t always thought of as a place that puts out elite athletes, even though it has everything a winter athlete could want, with multiple ski resorts all within two hours of Missoula.
People like Jake Sanderson and Darian Stevens prove those thoughts wrong with their impressive showing at national and Olympic Games. They inspire young athletes in Montana to go and chase their dreams.
The Winter Olympics will be hosted in Milano Corina, Italy and will start on February 4th and run until the 22nd. Viewers can watch on platforms like NBC and Peacock to root for their athletes to take home the gold.
