After much anticipation, Hockey Canada has announced its roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
The tournament will pit teams from the hockey powerhouse nations of Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the United States against one another in the first best-on-best tournament with NHL players since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. The tournament will take place February 12-20, 2025 in Montreal and Boston.
The Canadian roster also perhaps offers a glimpse into what could be a similar lineup for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, where NHL players are set to play for the first time in over a decade. Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off coach, Jon Cooper, is also tapped to lead Team Canada at Milano Cortina 2026. Cooper is the longest-tenured active head coach in the NHL.
Six players were named to Team Canada’s roster in June: Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Brayden Point and Brad Marchand. The rest of the 23-man roster was announced on December 4.
Seventeen of the players have represented Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship and 19 have donned the maple leaf for the IIHF World Championship. Members of the roster have won a combined 20 Stanley Cups, 10 gold medals at the world juniors, and nine gold medals at the world championships.
The eldest members of the team, Crosby (37) and Alex Pietrangelo (34) are the sole Olympians on the squad, after NHL players were not released to compete at PyeongChang 2018 and Beijing 2022. Crosby is a double Olympic gold medallist, having scored the famous “golden goal” to give Canada the victory at home during Vancouver 2010, as well as captaining Team Canada to gold at Sochi 2014. Pietrangelo was also a member of the gold medal-winning team in Sochi.
Team Canada’s rivals are also short on Olympic veterans. Team USA will feature only one Olympian. Counter to Team Canada’s situation, the only American Olympian on the roster is their youngest player, 22-year-old Brock Faber, who played at the Beijing 2022 Games before entering the NHL.
Finland won gold at Beijing 2022—but none of the members of that Olympic roster currently play in the NHL. The Swedish roster features three Olympians: defensemen Rasmus Dahlin (PyeongChang 2018, at age 17, before entering NHL) and Erik Karlsson (Sochi 2014), as well as forward Gustav Nyquist (Sochi 2014).
Forwards
Sam Bennett
Anthony Cirelli
Sidney Crosby
Brandon Hagel
Seth Jarvis
Travis Konecny
Nathan MacKinnon
Brad Marchand
Mitch Marner
Connor McDavid
Brayden Point
Sam Reinhart
Mark Stone
Defense
Cale Makar
Josh Morrissey
Colton Parayko
Alex Pietrangelo
Travis Sanheim
Shea Theodore
Devon Toews
Goaltenders
Jordan Binnington
Adin Hill
Sam Montembeault
