The 4 Nations Face-Off Rosters Have All Been Released, And We Finally Have Best-On-Best International Hockey Back In Our Lives
It's been a while since we've had some best-on-best international hockey. The World Cup of Hockey was 8 years ago at this point. Auston Matthews had just been drafted, Connor McDavid was only a year into his NHL career, the Pittsburgh Penguins still knew how to play hockey. The world was a much different place back then.
And even that tournament wasn't perfect. It wasn't a true international tournament considering we still had a Team Europe coming from a mix of like 8 different countries, and a Team North America 23U. But either way, hockey is always at its best when the greatest players in the world get a chance to represent their country or region.
The 2025 Four Nations Face-Off coming up in February is even less of a true international tournament than the World Cup is. As you can probably tell from the name of the event, there are only going to be 4 countries competing in the tournament--USA, Canada, Sweden and Finland. It's far from what we deserve to see. The fact that there's no Russia immediately turns this into a Mickey Mouse tournament. No Czechia or Slovakia makes it hard to even consider this an actual tournament instead of just an exhibition event. And part of what makes international hockey so special is when you get those smaller countries like Austria and Norway who go out there and treat every game like it's the Miracle on Ice when they have a chance to take down one of the powerhouses.
So no, the 2025 Four Nations Face-Off isn't the best-on-best international hockey tournament that we wanted. But it's still better than the alternative, which is nothing. And now that we're just about 2 months away from the event, the 4 rosters have been released. So let's take a look.
Team USA
One of the biggest travesties with the NHL not releasing players to compete at the 2018 and 2022 Olympics is that USA Hockey has quickly been closing the gap on Canada over those years. USA Hockey is now at a point where they can throw a roster out there that can hang player-for-player with Canada on paper.
Obviously the forwards like Auston Matthews and the Tkachuk brothers are going to be the headliners for this team. But I love this group of defensemen they're bringing. Just a bunch of guys who are dangerous as could be when they jump into the play. A couple of Norris winners with Hughes and Fox. Brock Faber is probably the #1 defenseman who you'd want to buy stock in right now in the NHL. Werenski throws a little grit into that group as well. The blueline for USA is stacked, and on top of that USA is bringing the best group of 3 goalies to the tournament.
Would I have loved to see Cole Caufield on this roster over a guy like Chris Kreider? Without a doubt. But this forward group are a bunch of big boys who are going to be a pain in the ass for opposing defensemen to contain. So if USA had to sacrifice one pure goal scorer just to keep the size up front, then that's not the worst case in the world. Caufield deserves to be on this team, but it's hard to get too upset over just one questionable snub.
Team Canada
I mean…what do you want me to say? This team is loaded, as they should be. Stanley Cup Champs, Conn Smythe winners, Hart Trophy winners, Norris Trophy winners. They have the best player in the tournament in Connor McDavid. They have the best defenseman in the tournament with Cale Makar. They probably have the 2nd best forward in the tournament with Nathan MacKinnon. And obviously you can't overlook the fact that Sidney Crosby just wins every time he throws on a Canadian jersey. 2 Olympic golds, a World Championship in 2015, the World Cup in 2016, a World Junior in 2005.
Now what I'll say is that as far as top end talent goes, Canada is definitely in the lead for this tournament. But I don't see them being quite as deep as Team USA. It takes getting all the way down to like the 10th or 11th forward, and the 5th or 6th defensemen to see where USA would have the edge. But that's just on paper. I'm sure Connor Bedard would make this team look a lot better on paper, but I'm sure a guy like Anthony Cirelli is going to be able to fill a role they need more than another elite goal scorer.
Goalies are suspect, though. Pretty crazy that Canada just can't produce goalies anymore. I get it. There's too much skill in Canada right now. You'd be miserable being a youth hockey goalie getting Michigan'd every weekend.
Team Sweden
The format of this tournament is set up great for Sweden. It's a round robin with the top 2 teams just playing 1 game for the final. That means you're only playing 4 games if you're going to win this thing. The Swedes have more than enough goal scorers, an elite defensive core, and great goalies. Jesper Bratt can be a top 5 point scorer in the tournament, Elias Pettersson can heat up at any moment, and Victor Hedman is still one of the most complete defensemen in the game today. Did they maybe get a little too considerate by adding Mika Zibanejad and Erik Karlsson to the roster? Sure. But those guys have meant a lot to Swedish hockey over the years, so sometimes you need them on the roster just for morale.
Team Finland
Not exactly a roster that completely jumps out at you right away. All in all, I'd love this team if the event was more than just 3-4 games played over 8 days. I just don't know if they have the same amount of high end talent as the other 3 rosters. Rantanen, Barkov and Aho are as good as it gets, but the forwards drop off a bit from there. Obviously a guy like Mikael Granlund is having a huge year, and Roope Hintz is starting to climb up the ladder as one of the most underrated players in hockey list. Miro Heiskanen and Juuse Saros are going to be enough to keep Finland in every game. But on paper, Finland is clearly the weak link of this event. Which means they'll probably go on to win the whole thing. Finns never make any sense.
It all gets going on February 12th. Again, it's not the best case scenario for true best-on-best international hockey. But at least it's a start going in the right direction again. And any time you get USA vs Canada is worth getting excited for. I just wish we could sneak the Russians in real quick, but there's probably already been too much signage made at this point that we can't switch the name to the 5 Nations Face-Off.