Canada, the U.S., Finland and Sweden on Friday each announced their first six players for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, set to be held Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.
Zero surprises here: Sidney Crosby will play for Canada and Erik Karlsson will play for Sweden in the tournament.
The 4 Nations Face-Off is a new NHL-sanctioned tournament that will replace the NHL All-Star Game for the coming season. With the NHL also returning to the Olympics beginning in 2026, the eventual goal is to have the 4 Nations Face-Off run every four years between Olympic years -- 2028, 2032, 2036, etc. The NHL's tentative plan is to use the All-Star Game function as a "send off" in Olympic years, but have the 4 Nations Face-Off replace the All-Star Game in seasons when it runs.
Canada's other five players named to the roster are Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Brad Marchand, Connor McDavid and Brayden Point and Sweden named Victor Hedman, Gustav Forsling, Mika Zibanejad, William Nylander and Filip Forsberg. to theirs. The Finnish roster will include Sebastian Aho, Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Rantanen, Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Juuse Saros, and the U.S. roster will include Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy. The complete rosters will be named closer to the tournament.
Mike Sullivan will coach the U.S. team as previously announced, along with the U.S. Olympic team in 2026.
For Crosby, this will be the first time he has worn the Team Canada jersey since the 2016 World Cup, the previous NHL-sanctioned international tournament that took place at the start of the 2016-17 season. It'll be the first time he will be teammates with stars like McDavid and presumably Connor Bedard, and only the second time he gets to be teammates with his close friend MacKinnon, after the two previously were teammates on Canada's 2015 World Championship team that won gold.
Karlsson hasn't waited quite as long to wear Sweden's jersey in an international tournament. He captained Sweden to a bronze medal at the World Championship this spring, racking up six goals and five assists in 10 games along the way. His six goals led all defensemen in the tournament, he was named to the tournament's first All-Star Team, and was named one of the top three players on his team at the end of the tournament.
Both Crosby and Karlsson are expected to speak this afternoon in a virtual media availability about the honor, and Sullivan will hold an in-person conference after. I'll have coverage from here in Las Vegas.
