The United States chose dependable veterans over younger alternatives in picking its roster to compete against Canada, Sweden and Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off, the first international tournament featuring the NHL’s best players in nearly a decade.
Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers and Brock Nelson of the rival Islanders were among the final 17 players chosen, with USA Hockey prioritizing experience from world championships and other events over future potential. General manager Bill Guerin said the depth of talent to choose from was a testament to the grassroots growth of the sport in the U.S.
“It was extremely challenging to get to a final roster,” said Guerin, the Minnesota Wild’s general manager. “Hockey in our country is strong and continuing to get better, and this team is no doubt a reflection of that.”
Dallas’ Jason Robertson, 25, Utah’s Clayton Keller, 26, and Buffalo’s Alex Tuch, 27, and Tage Thompson, 28, were among the forwards left off. Kreider and Nelson, the oldest players on the team at age 33, have extensive history playing at the world championships.
The youngest player is also the only one with Olympic experience: 22-year-old Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber, who played at the Beijing Games in 2022 when the NHL pulled out late because of pandemic-related scheduling issues. Winnipeg’s two-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck, Dallas’ Jake Oettinger and Boston’s Jeremy Swayman were the slam-dunk choices in net at a position with an embarrassment of strong depth, with Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko injured and unavailable.
Canada has no sure answer in goal and chose a pair of Stanley Cup champions, St. Louis’ Jordan Binnington and Vegas’ Adin Hill, along with Montreal’s Sam Montembeault. The country that won the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the past two Olympics without NHL talent built a team outside the net that fits two-time Cup-winning coach Jon Cooper and includes Lightning players 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,” Cooper said. “We look forward to our group gathering in February and competing for a championship.”
Finland also went heavy on recent championship winners, picking Florida’s Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola and Colorado’s Artturi Lehkonen
“It’s big value,” said Finland general manager Jere Lehtinen, who was also in charge of the team that won gold at the 2022 Olympics without NHL talent. “You have a few players who have won and have been in tough situations through their careers, so when it comes to a tournament like that, it’s a quick tournament. You have to be ready right away.”
Sweden, much like the U.S., skewed older with its selections.
The Swedish Hockey Federation opted for veteran experience on defense with Edmonton’s Mattias Ekholm and Minnesota’s Jonas Brodin, to go along with young Buffalo captain Rasmus Dahlin. Up front, the Swedes did not overlook youth, choosing Anaheim’s 19-year-old center Leo Carlsson and Detroit’s 22-year-old winger Lucas Raymond among their forwards.
“We went with an experienced group,” Sweden general manager Josef Boumedienne said. “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 little more experienced group and we have a lot of leadership qualities in our group that we were excited about.”
The Finns took some role players in piecing together a team in front of Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros, including Montreal’s Joel Armia and San Jose’s Mikael Granlund, who’s having something of a career renaissance 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 this week. “I’ve always just actually loved those moments and I’ve had good success on the national team. It’s really cool and, having the 4 Nations, that’s best against best, so that’s special.”
Among the final decisions, Sweden left off Hampus Lindholm to bring Brodin, citing the Boston defenseman’s injury and tight timeline as the reason. Finland put Patrik Laine on the roster that had to be locked in earlier this week before the scoring winger made his season debut Tuesday night for Montreal.
“We’ve been talking with him and knowing where he’s at,” Lehtinen said. “Overall, there’s two months before the tournament starts, so there’s a lot of games before then and I think it’s enough time to get him in good game shape and playing well.”
Toronto’s Jani Hakanpää got the nod on the blue line even though he has only played in two games this season coming off a knee injury. Finland only had the choice of 10 defensemen to pick from.
“We know that we don’t have too many D-men who’s playing in the NHL,” coach Antti Pennanen said. “But still, we have a good back end: strong and big, and they are able to play against top forwards.”
The United States and Canada are set to unveil their choices later Wednesday. The round-robin tournament with the top two teams facing off in the final is taking place from Feb. 12-20, with the first half in Montreal and second half in Boston.
This is the first country versus country men’s tournament in the sport with the best players involved since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. The hope was to stage the event this past winter, but questions over how to handle Russian players given that country’s war in Ukraine pushed it to 2025 and reduced the teams involved to these four.
Each country’s first six players were named 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.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
