There are three things that hockey players dream of ever since they first lace up their skates. Getting drafted into and making the NHL, winning the Stanley Cup, and playing for their country in the Olympics.
At a young age, Clayton Keller achieved the first dream. He was drafted in the first round in 2016 by the Arizona Coyotes and played his first NHL game in March of 2017. He’s now played 644 games between the Coyotes and the Utah Mammoth. While he’s still attempting to win his first Stanley Cup, he’s getting closer every season as the Mammoth continue to grow into a playoff contender.
Making Team USA for the Winter Olympics always seemed like an inevitability for Keller. However, the past couple of years haven’t been kind to his chances of representing his country on the biggest stage. NHLers haven’t attended the Olympics since 2014. Last season, despite having the best season of his career, Keller was left off Team USA’s 4-Nations tournament.
Despite not playing in Montreal and Boston last February, Keller stayed committed to chasing his dream. With a big summer where he helped his country make history, it seemed like inevitability turned into a shoo-in. That became true as Keller’s dream of being an Olympian became reality with a phone call from Team USA general manager Bill Guerin earlier this month.
An Impressive Resume Highlighted With Gold
Keller missed two FaceTime calls from Guerin during the Mammoth’s practice on Long Island. It took Mammoth General Manager Bill Armstrong going up to Keller to tell him to check his phone.
Guerin’s call was to let Keller know he made Team USA. On the call, Guerin told the forward how excited he was to have him on the team. Keller stayed quiet throughout most of the call, speechless and excited to have the opportunity to represent his country in Milano Cortina.
“I didn’t really know what to say,” Keller said. “It means so much to me. I’ve worked tremendously hard. Anytime you can represent your country, it’s the best feeling ever.”
Couldn’t be more stoked for our captain. ???????? #TusksUp | #MilanoCortina2026 pic.twitter.com/rcCfN3kLpp
— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) January 2, 2026
It won’t be the first time Keller will throw on the red, white, and blue jersey. He’s represented the United States in multiple tournaments. That includes the U18 Worlds in 2015 and World Juniors in 2017. In both of those tournaments, he won gold.
However, the most important tournament he represented his country in was last summer’s World Championship, an annual tournament put on by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in the summertime. Because it is held during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a lot of big-name players don’t attend.
Despite that, it is no joke tournament. There are still plenty of NHLers competing, and it’s shown. Going into this summer, Team USA hadn’t won gold at the World Championship since 1934.
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Keller was named captain of Team USA after choosing to attend the tournament. He had previously played for his country in 2017 and 2019, both of which saw the United States finish with no medals. That was something he looked to change.
In 10 games, Keller had 10 points as he captained Team USA all the way to the gold medal game, where they faced Switzerland. It took overtime, but Tage Thompson scored the game-winning goal to win the United States gold for the first time in 92 years. The tournament really made Keller stand out, especially because of his captaincy to get his country gold.
It's been a while so raise that trophy HIGH, boys! ????#MensWorlds pic.twitter.com/gPioDHtZes
— USA Hockey (@usahockey) May 25, 2025
The tournament also proved to Guerin that Keller has experience in something more than some of his other players do: consistently winning in a best-on-best tournament.
“The team that comes together and is the closest is the team that ultimately wins,” Keller said. “I think that’s why in Worlds we were successful. Everyone bought into the role, whatever role you played on your team the previous season. That’s the sacrifice that you make to win the gold medal.
That United States team that Keller led was super close. Granted, it helped that he had three other Mammoth teammates with him (Josh Doan, Michael Kesselring, and Logan Cooley). However, it was the whole team that Keller found to be like family. He credits that feeling as a big reason why that team won.
“We were super close, spent a ton of time together, playing a lot of card games in the hotel,” Keller said. “There was a lot of downtime. I ultimately think that’s a huge reason why we won.”
That feeling of being a close team will likely return to Team USA for the Olympics. A majority of the country’s roster played with each other in last year’s 4-Nations tournament, with only two players being left off (Chris Kreider and Adam Fox).
While Keller is one of the new four players on the roster, he’s played with a majority of the team before. Obviously, newcomer Thompson was on that World Championship roster last summer with Keller. Zach Werenski and Jeremy Swayman were also on that team.
Outside of the World Championship, Keller has played with both Matthew and Brady Tkachuk before during their youth hockey days in the St. Louis area. Ironically enough, Matthew was drafted one spot before Keller in 2016. The forward has also played with Jake Oettinger in college and in the United States Development Program.
A Tough Tournament Ahead
Mammoth head coach André Tourigny is a proud Canadian. He’ll almost always root for his country. However, with Keller making the Olympics, he might have to make a rare exception to root for a different country, an exception he’s only made a couple of times while coaching with the Colorado Avalanche when players like Matt Duchene, Paul Statsny, and Gabriel Landeskog were named to their respective countries’ Olympic rosters.
While Tourigny doesn’t know if he should be happy or mad yet about Keller making the Olympics, he couldn’t be more proud of his captain finally getting to represent his country on the highest stage.
“He’s a model of perseverance,” Tourigny said. “It’s a model of dedication to his craft, dedication to his team. He’s a model for our team of continued improvement every day…Last year, he decided to go to the World Championship and captain the team, and he won for his country for the first time. That has to carry a lot of weight. You see what the guys can do and on that kind of stage, and what that means for him. I think it’s good for him to be rewarded.”
Tourigny says that Keller brings exactly what you’d expect to Team USA. Leadership, speed, competitiveness, vision, and good playmaking. He also added that Keller is never satisfied and always wants to improve. A trait Team USA will certainly need.
It won’t be an easy tournament for the United States. As always, standing in their way is Canada. Twice in the past 26 years, Canada has defeated the United States in the gold medal game. On top of that, a heartbreaking goal from Connor McDavid in overtime during the 4-Nations championship game took out what was arguably Team USA’s deepest roster in history last year.
The United States hasn’t won gold in the Olympics since 1980, nearly 50 years ago. Of course, Keller knows a thing or two about breaking long droughts like that. He’s excited to try to help his country finally break that long spell of losing.
“It’s an unbelievable pace,” Keller said. “There are so many great players. The competition is going to be unbelievable. I couldn’t be more excited. You want to play against the best players in the world. That’s ultimately why the NHL players wanted to be there so bad, to have the best on best.”
Olympian at Last
It’s been a long road to Milano Cortina for Keller, but he can finally add to his resume that he’s an Olympian. There’s no doubt he deserves it as well. 544 points in 644 NHL games. Captain of the Mammoth. Captaining Team USA to gold at the World Championship. It’s quite impressive what he’s managed to do ever since turning pro in 2017. Even if all of that didn’t attract Guerin’s attention, Keller’s nine points in the past five games against Guerin’s Minnesota Wild certainly did.
To represent your country at the highest stage is an honor that is hard to describe. Some NHL players even call it a higher honor than winning the Stanley Cup. For Keller, it’s not just another achievement. It’s literally a dream come true to finally have the chance to go to the Olympics with Team USA.
“It means everything,” Keller said. “I’ve been lucky to do it a couple of times before with the US program, U18s, U20s, World Championships. Every time you throw that jersey on, it’s a feeling that’s hard to describe, and something that I definitely don’t take for granted.”
Keller has had a great career so far with the Coyotes and Mammoth. At the end of the day, he might win Stanley Cups, continue being one of the best Americans in the league, and create countless unforgettable moments for Mammoth fans. However, when it’s all said and done, it wouldn’t be surprising if he tells you that the best moment of his career was getting that FaceTime from Guerin telling him he was going to the Olympics, even if he missed the first couple of calls.
