The United States selected experienced veterans rather than younger players for its roster to compete against Canada, Sweden, and Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off. This is the first international tournament featuring NHL players in almost a decade.
Chris Kreider from the New York Rangers and Brock Nelson of the Islanders were among the final 17 players chosen, with USA Hockey prioritizing their experience from past world championships and other events over the potential of younger players. Bill Guerin, the general manager of the Minnesota Wild, mentioned that the large pool of talent showed the growth of hockey in the U.S.
“It was extremely challenging to get to a final roster,” said Guerin. “Hockey in our country is strong and continuing to get better, and this team is no doubt a reflection of that.”
Dallas’ Jason Robertson, Clayton Keller from Utah, Alex Tuch from Buffalo, and Tage Thompson, aged 25-28, were not selected. Kreider and Nelson, the oldest players at 33, have a lot of experience in world championships.
The youngest player on the U.S. team is 22-year-old Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber, who has Olympic experience after playing in the 2022 Beijing Games when the NHL players were unable to participate due to pandemic scheduling.
The U.S. also selected three goalies: Connor Hellebuyck from Winnipeg, Jake Oettinger from Dallas, and Jeremy Swayman from Boston. Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko was unavailable due to injury.
Canada, on the other hand, had some uncertainty in goal but chose two Stanley Cup champions: Jordan Binnington from St. Louis, Adin Hill from Vegas, and Sam Montembeault from Montreal. The team, coached by Jon Cooper, includes players from the Tampa Bay Lightning, such as Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, and Brayden Point.
“This event is an important part of the process as we continue to build teams that can be successful on the international stage,” said Cooper. “We look forward to our group gathering in February and competing for a championship.”
Finland selected several players who have won recent championships, including Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, and Niko Mikkola from Florida, and Artturi Lehkonen from Colorado.
“It’s big value,” said Finland’s general manager Jere Lehtinen, who also led the team that won the 2022 Olympic gold medal. “You have a few players who have won and been in tough situations, so in a tournament like this, you need to be ready right away.”
Sweden, like the U.S., picked a roster of experienced players.
They chose veteran defensemen Mattias Ekholm from Edmonton and Jonas Brodin from Minnesota, along with younger Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. In forwards, Sweden picked 19-year-old Leo Carlsson from Anaheim and 22-year-old Lucas Raymond from Detroit.
“We went with an experienced group,” said Sweden’s general manager Josef Boumedienne. “We’ve got a few really good young players that did not make the roster, but we decided with a short tournament like this, basically do-or-die games in every single one of them, we went with a more experienced group and a lot of leadership qualities.”
Finland also took some role players, including Montreal’s Joel Armia and San Jose’s Mikael Granlund, who has had a career revival with the Sharks.
“As a young player in Finland, that’s one of the biggest things you can have in a hockey career, to play for your country,” Granlund said. “I’ve always loved those moments and had good success on the national team. Having the 4 Nations is special.”
When making their final selections, Sweden left out Hampus Lindholm to bring in Brodin, citing Lindholm’s injury and the tight timeline. Finland put Patrik Laine on the roster before he made his season debut for Montreal.
“We’ve been talking with him and knowing where he’s at,” Lehtinen said. “There’s two months before the tournament starts, so there’s enough time to get him in good game shape.”
Toronto’s Jani Hakanpää was chosen for Finland’s defense despite only playing in two games due to a knee injury. Finland had only 10 defensemen to pick from.
“We know we don’t have too many D-men in the NHL,” said Finland’s coach Antti Pennanen. “But we have a strong back end, big players, and they can play against top forwards.”
The United States and Canada were expected to reveal their choices later Wednesday. The round-robin tournament will take place from February 12-20, with the first half in Montreal and the second half in Boston.
This is the first men’s international tournament with the NHL’s top players since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The event was originally planned for the winter, but the delay in handling Russian players because of the war in Ukraine pushed it to 2025, limiting the countries involved to just these four.
The first six players for each country were selected in late June: Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, Quinn Hughes, Charlie McAvoy, and Adam Fox for the U.S.; Point, Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Brad Marchand for Canada; Mika Zibanejad, William Nylander, Filip Forsberg, Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, and Gustav Forsling for Sweden; and Saros, Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Miro Heiskanen, and Esa Lindell for Finland.
