Clara gearing up for 2026 Olympics with Italy, eyeing role with Ducks

IRVINE, Calif. -- Damian Clara liked his chances of competing for his home country at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

The Anaheim Ducks goalie prospect just didn't expect the news so soon.

The 20-year-old learned on June 16 that he was among the first six players selected to Italy’s Olympic hockey team that will compete at the Games in February.

"I didn't even know there was a thing," Clara said of the early announcement. "I just got the call, 'Hey, we've got our top six guys and you're one of them.' I was like, 'OK, wow. What's that?'"

A second-round pick (No. 60) by the Ducks in the 2023 NHL Draft, Clara (6-foot-6, 198 pounds) has significant international experience for his age, but the Olympic competition in Milan, at the newly built Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena and recently renovated Milano Rho Ice Hockey Arena, will be unlike anything he has faced. NHL players will be participating in the Olympics for the first time since the 2014 Sochi Games.

Italy is scheduled to play Sweden on Feb. 11, the opening day of competition. None of the six players named for Italy has played in the NHL, but Sweden's first six selections -- defensemen Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Rasmus Dahlin (Buffalo Sabres), and forwards Gabriel Landeskog (Colorado Avalanche), William Nylander (Toronto Maple Leafs), Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles Kings) and Lucas Raymond (Detroit Red Wings) -- have combined for nine NHL All-Star Game appearances.

"Just see it as a challenge. There's nothing to lose," Clara said recently at Ducks development camp. "Exciting opportunity, as I'm still in development too. And it's a great thing for Italian hockey to invite some of the best players in the world into our new rink and, obviously, match up with our team."

Clara is accustomed to surviving outside his comfort zone.

He left home at age 14 to attend the Red Bull Academy in Salzburg, Austria, and played well enough to make the Italy men’s national team two years later in 2021, becoming the youngest player in modern history to appear on an IIHF World Hockey Championship roster.

After the Ducks made Clara the first Italy-born player ever drafted in the NHL and the third-highest goalie drafted in the team’s history, he went 25-8-0 with a 2.23 goals-against average and .913 save percentage in 34 games with Brynas of the Swedish Hockey League in 2023-24, becoming the youngest goalie to win 25 games in Sweden’s second division.

The Ducks signed him to a three-year entry-level contract the following offseason, and he played in Sweden and Finland last season before making his American Hockey League debut with San Diego in April.

Playing for three teams in three countries wasn't ideal, and Clara's numbers and playing time declined from the previous season, but he still feels like a better overall goalie than a year ago.

"The biggest steps have been mental and just making things simpler," he said. "I think I'm more of a well-rounded goalie now, a little more well put together. There's a long way to go."

Where he'll play at the start of this season is still to be determined, but Clara knows where he'll be playing in February.

"It's a big honor," Clara said of playing in the Olympics in his home country. "Really happy to get the trust, and I'll do my best to go there and, hopefully, help the team, maybe, make an upset or something. It's our goal and we'll see what happens."

René Baur, a goalie for 11th-place Italy at the 2006 Torino Olympics, first met Clara when he was 13 and was immediately impressed by his maturity.

"How he was speaking, how he acted," Baur said. "He didn't act like a 13-year-old."

They trained together until Clara left for Austria and continue to hook up in the offseason when schedules permit.

Baur said Clara's body type means he requires a different style of coaching.

"It's not about loading his body,” Baur said. “It's more about getting his body stable, coordination-wise, and letting his body function in a way that he can move on the ice. It takes a lot longer time than for a smaller goalie to really get small pieces of his body working together."

Clara said he doesn't always use his size to his advantage.

"Sometimes, I open up and play too aggressive and make life hard for myself," he said. "That's something else I've learned, just use what's there the best way possible, and I think there's still some steps I can take to accomplish that and get more out of it."

Clara's path to the NHL, and especially a starting role with the Ducks, is also stacked with obstacles, particularly other young talent.

Lukas Dostal, 25, supplanted John Gibson as the No. 1 goalie in Anaheim last season, and the Ducks traded Gibson to the Red Wings on June 28 for fellow goalie Petr Mrazek, a fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

Behind Dostal are veteran backups Mrazek and Ville Husso as well as 23-year-old Calle Clang, a third-round pick (No. 77) of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2020 NHL Draft; Tomas Suchanek, 22; and Vyacheslav Buteyets, 23.

Clara considers the other goalies in the organization more as examples than competition.

"You can learn from everybody," Clara said. "Even guys that are younger than me."