4 Nations Face-Off team preview: USA

Feb 7, 2025

International hockey is back, and not just that stuff between guys who missed the playoffs.

Perhaps the biggest storyline is the potential ascension of Team USA, whose National Team Development Program has become a viable source of top NHL players since they last played best-on-best hockey at the 2016 World Cup.

That tournament was an embarrassment for the Americans, who sorely lacked game-breakers like Tage Thompson and Clayton Keller. These days, Thompson and Keller couldn’t make the roster.

That’s how far the Red, White, and Blue have come during the NHL’s lengthy break from the international stage. If anything, they could use more T.J. Oshie types to do the hard work for their legion of superstars. Talk about a 180.

The talent and the depth are there, and the USA is motivated to knock off its hockey big brother in Canada for the first time since 1996. Could this be a changing of the guard?

PROJECTED LINEUP

Forwards

J.T. Miller – Auston Matthews – Matthew Tkachuk
Kyle Connor – Jack Eichel – Brady Tkachuk
Dylan Larkin – Jack Hughes – Chris Kreider
Jake Guentzel – Vincent Trocheck – Matt Boldy
Scratch: Brock Nelson

Defensemen

Quinn Hughes – Charlie McAvoy
Jaccob Slavin – Adam Fox
Zach Werenski – Brock Faber
Scratch: Noah Hanifin

Goalies

Connor Hellebuyck
Jake Oettinger
Scratch: Jeremy Swayman

OFFENSE

Coach Mike Sullivan will think hard about how to utilize Auston Matthews, his captain and best player. Matthews is the greatest goal scorer of his generation but has endured some ups and downs in his first season wearing the ‘C’ for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In our projection, Sullivan will use Matthew Tkachuk and J.T. Miller, perhaps the two most physical point-a-game players in the NHL, to do Matthews’ dirty work in the corners and shovel pucks into the low slot, where No. 34 is the most dangerous scorer on the planet.

Winnipeg Jets’ sniper Kyle Connor could give elite playmaker Jack Eichel a triggerman on a second line where Matt Tkachuk’s bigger, meaner brother Brady provides the forechecking element.

On the blueline, reigning Norris winner Quinn Hughes’s availability is a huge question mark for Team USA’s powerplay. If he does miss the tournament, Zach Werenski and his wicked wrister should draw into the top unit. Adam Fox, himself a Norris Trophy winner, isn’t a half-bad option, either.

DEFENSE

Quinn Hughes has pushed hard to wrest the title of “best defenseman in the world” from his unspoken rival Cale Makar over the past 18 months, but that won’t help Team USA if his lower-body injury holds him out of the action.

Hughes or no Hughes, the Americans will boast a balanced defense corps at the event.

Werenski has exploded into his role as a rover in Columbus, and Fox is as good a passer as there is in the league at any position. Jaccob Slavin’s smart defensive game makes him a favorite of hockey purists, and former collegiate standouts Charlie McAvoy (who will wear an ‘A’) and Brock Faber can tailor their all-around abilities to any kind of game.

As deep as their blueline is, the Americans didn’t bring as many defensive specialists in their forward group as Canada (Cirelli, Hagel), Sweden (Lindholm, Eriksson Ek), or Finland (Armia, Lundell). If Miller is deployed as a top-six winger, their options for a checking line become even more limited.

Without traditional matchup forwards, they’ll turn to speedy Red Wings’ captain Dylan Larkin, an underrated two-way player, and his faceoff prowess for defensive zone starts. Despite a difficult season, veteran Chris Kreider still has the wheels to join him on a line that can turn defense into chances on the rush.

GOALTENDING

Connor Hellebuyck is the best goalie in the world. He will likely win the Vezina Trophy for the third time this season, and, if the vote were today, he might win the Hart too. Hellebuyck’s recent postseason struggles might scare our American readers, but they should only give him added motivation to prove he can perform in the clutch.

That’s something his backups Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman have proven more than once over the past few years, and they’ll be on hand if ‘Helly’ picks up a knock. The latter has struggled for consistency and will likely serve as the No. 3 netminder.

COACHING

Mike Sullivan hasn’t had much success with the Pittsburgh Penguins since winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, but those championships will buy him a ton of clout with a group that’s pretty young by the standards of international hockey.

If Sullivan could get Phil Kessel to buy into a third-line role for a few glorious weeks during the ‘16 run, then he won’t have any problems molding high-character players like Larkin and Vincent Trocheck into down-lineup guys for a handful of games.

The personalities Sullivan has to monitor might be behind the bench with him.

John Tortorella and John Hynes know how to implement a defensive structure, but they’re also proponents of the uncreative, north-south game that has doomed the U.S. at so many tournaments. A team this talented needs to be allowed to take chances.

BURNING QUESTION

Are these guys winners?

Focusing on intangibles in 2025 is a good way to get shouted down by new-school hockey fans, but this American team isn’t just going to walk through its opponents.

The Canadians have three of the five best players in the world, the Swedes have an all-universe blueline, and the Finns have a wealth of experience playing as a team. These will be tough games, and it will take tough people to get through them.

We know Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, and Jake Guentzel have the clutch gene, but what about players without postseason experience like Larkin and Brady Tkachuk? What about Matthews, whose playoff performances have been a sore spot throughout his career?

GM Bill Guerin tried to bring some veteran glue guys in Trocheck, Kreider, and Brock Nelson, but they won’t play in the top six. It’s up to the new guard to get Team USA past its tournament yips.

PREDICTION

When my colleague Matt Larkin previewed Team Canada’s chances at the 4 Nations Faceoff, he said Team USA’s history of choking matters until they prove otherwise.

I’m not convinced. Are a bunch of superstars in their prime so paralyzed by the memory of Carey Price’s heroics during the Sochi Olympics, a tournament none of them played in, that they just can’t beat Canada?

None of these countries has time to prepare, so Team USA’s superior skill should be enough to buy them a long-overdue international triumph.

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