4 Nations Face-Off

During his All*Star Game press conference, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman officially announced something that's been in the works for several weeks is indeed happening.  And it's welcome news that hockey fans everywhere have been waiting for.  The NHL will be returning to the Olympics!  The league has reached an agreement with the NHLPA, IOC and IIHF for NHL players to participate in the 2026 and 2030 Games (and probably 2034, as well, since those Winter Olympics will likely be in Salt Lake City).

The Milan Cortina Games will mark the first time in 12 years that the NHL will be taking an Olympic break.  After playing in five straight Olympics from 1998-2014, the NHL sat out the PyeongChang Games in 2018.  They were originally planning on going to Beijing in 2022, but ended up having to pull out because so many games were postponed because of COVID and they needed the Olympic break to make them up.  As a result, there's a whole generation of NHL stars who've never represented their country in a best-on-best international competition.

It really didn't sit well when the league opted against going in 2018.  Especially since it was clear that everybody except for the owners wanted to see the NHL players in the Olympics.  The players wanted it.  The fans wanted it.  The IOC and IIHF wanted it.  Unfortunately, the owners were the only ones who had decision-making power.  It was such an important issue to the players, however, that they included it in the most recent CBA.  When they didn't go in 2022, people understood.  But it only made the desire to finally see it again that much greater.

Everyone wants to see Connor McDavid and Cale Makar playing for Team Canada against Auston Matthews and Jack Hughes on Team USA, but it hasn't happened yet.  In 2026, it finally will.  Actually, scratch that.  It'll happen for the first time next year.  Because Bettman also announced the 4 Nations Face-Off between the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland that will replace the All*Star Game next year.

Ultimately, the NHL would like to go have an international tournament every two years, with the World Cup of Hockey between Olympics.  However, they don't want to have another World Cup without Russia, which is currently suspended by the IIHF.  So, don't expect the next World Cup of Hockey until Russia's suspension is lifted.

Instead, we'll get a four-team event involving only NHL players from four top hockey-playing nations.  It'll be held in mid-February (the same timeframe as the 2026 Olympics) and replace the All*Star Game next season.  They'll play a round-robin tournament in two NHL cities (I've heard Montreal and Boston), with the top two teams meeting each other again for the championship. 

If we can't have a full international tournament (and the reason why is understandable), this is the next-best thing.  And I think Sweden and Finland were the right choices as the other two participating teams.  Along with Russia, they're the European countries that are most represented in the NHL, Finland is the defending Olympic gold medalist, and Sweden is traditionally strong at both the World Championships and Olympics.  Not to mention the Swedish talent in the NHL!

There are obviously plenty of great NHL players who aren't American, Canadian, Swedish or Finnish (or Russian).  And it'll be a bummer not to see guys like Leon Draisaitl (Germany) or David Pastrnak (Czech Republic/Czechia), but just think about how great that'll make the Olympic tournament in 2026!  Especially if the Russians are allowed to play (seriously, how would anyone score against Russia when they'll have their choice of Andrei Vasilevskiy, Igor Shesterkin and Sergey Bobrovsky in goal!?).

Although, just taking a look at the player pool for the four nations that will be participating, you can tell just how stacked these rosters will be!  There will be some legit NHL all-stars who don't make the team! For all four countries!  And, with the amount of talent that'll be on display, it's seriously impossible to pick a favorite!

Only players under contract and on an NHL roster as of Dec. 2, 2024 will be eligible for this tournament, and you know that making the team will be one of the primary goals for a lot of players entering next season.  Each country will name a six-player preliminary roster over the summer, and there are others who you can confidently say will be there unless an injury prevents it.  But, with the number of quality options available to all four countries, who ultimately ends up on the 23-player squads will be a subject for debate from now until the actual rosters are announced.

That also makes it very hard to make a mock roster, since there are only a handful of obvious guys and some players who'd be on the team today might not ultimately make it.  But, I'm giving it a shot based on the current NHL rosters anyway.  Here's who I'd select for each of the four teams (I did choose a few players who are currently injured, assuming they'd be good to go a year from now)...

UNITED STATES
Goalies: Thatcher Demko, Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger
Defensemen: John Carlson, Justin Faulk, Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes, Seth Jones, Charlie McAvoy, Zach Werenski
Forwards: Matty Beniers, Brock Boeser, Kyle Connor, Alex DeBrincat, Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau, Jack Hughes, Clayton Keller, Chris Kreider, Dylan Larkin, Auston Matthews, J.T. Miller, Matthew Tkachuk

CANADA
Goalies: Martin Jones, Darcy Kuemper, Stuart Skinner
Defensemen: Calvin de Haan, Drew Doughty, Aaron Ekblad, Cale Makar, Alex Pietrangelo, Morgan Rielly, Shea Theodore
Forwards: Mathew Barzal, Connor Bedard, Jamie Benn, Sidney Crosby, Bo Horvat, Jordan Kyrou, Nathan MacKinnon, Mitch Marner, Connor McDavid, Brayden Point, Jason Robertson, Nick Suzuki, John Tavares

FINLAND
Goalies: Joonas Korpisalo, Antti Raanta, Juuse Saros
Defensemen: Jani Hakanpaa, Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, Olli Maatta, Rasmus Ristolainen, Urho Vaakanainen, Juuso Valimaki
Forwards: Sebastian Aho (CAR), Aleksander Barkov, Mikael Granlund, Roope Hintz, Kaapo Kakko, Kasperi Kapanen, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Patrik Laine, Artturi Lehkonen, Anton Lundell, Mikko Rantanen, Teuvo Teravainen, Eeli Tolvanen

SWEDEN
Goalies: Anton Forsberg, Jacob Markstrom, Linus Ullmark
Defensemen: Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Ekholm, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, Nils Lundkvist, Rasmus Sandin
Forwards: Viktor Arvidsson, Nicklas Backstrom, Joel Eriksson Ek, Filip Forsberg, Mattias Janmark, William Karlsson, Gabriel Landeskog, Elias Lindholm, William Nylander, Fredrik Olofsson, Gustav Nyquist, Elias Pettersson, Mika Zibanejad

Seriously, look at those potential teams!  While Hellebuyck is your clear starter, I'd take any of the three American goalies.  Canada's full of goal scorers, and Sweden's defense is ridiculous!  Would you really want to count out that Finnish team, though?  Like I said, there's no possible way to choose a favorite.  Which is one of the things that'll make this 4 Nations Face-Off so much fun!  And that'll just be the warmup for the NHL's Olympic return in 2026.