The NHL is hosting their own international competition called the 4 Nations Face-Off, which includes teams from Canada, USA, Sweden and Finland. Rosters for the teams have been submitted, and will be announced on Dec. 4, 2024. While we await that announcement, the writers at The Hockey Writers voted on a poll to fill in their own roster for each team, and this one is with Team USA.
Each team will have 13 forwards, seven defensemen, and three goaltenders, as permitted by the roster rules of the tournament.
Without further ado, here is the projected roster the writers selected, with each position being listed alphabetically by last name.
Team USA’s Forwards
Each team announced six players to their roster earlier in the year. Those players are marked with an asterisk.
- Cole Caufield
- Kyle Connor
- Jack Eichel*
- Jake Guentzel
- Jack Hughes
- Clayton Keller
- Dylan Larkin
- Auston Matthews*
- J.T. Miller
- Jason Robertson
- Tage Thompson
- Brady Tkachuk
- Matthew Tkachuk*
Initially announced for the team were forwards Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, and Matthew Tkachuk, who, at times over the past few seasons, have been among the most valuable players in the entire league. Having the great play from Eichel, the goal-scoring of Matthews, and elite physicality and leadership from Tkachuk makes for a great trio.
Having Brady Tkachuk join his brother on the team will add even more physicality, and both can certainly chip in offensively.
This forward group has a lot of pure offensive threats, including Cole Caufield, Kyle Connor, Jack Hughes, J.T. Miller, Tage Thompson, and many more. Any one of the players mentioned so far are capable of scoring a hat-trick in the gold medal game and nobody would be surprised.
Deeper in the lineup, some good two-way options include Dylan Larkin, Clayton Keller, and Jason Robertson. They will likely be more role-player additions to the team, but certainly valuable.
Team USA’s Defense
- John Carlson
- Brock Faber
- Adam Fox*
- Quinn Hughes*
- Charlie McAvoy*
- Jaccob Slavin
- Zach Werenski
This is a very offense-heavy defense group, but many of them to do well on the defensive side as well. Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox, and Charlie McAvoy are all great on both sides of the puck, but with Hughes and Fox in particular, are two of the best offensive defensemen in the NHL, and all three were among the six initially named to the team.
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Brock Faber and Zach Werenski are both excellent defensemen who play strong on both sides of the puck. While Faber leans towards the defensive side a bit more, he is still very capable of putting up good numbers. With Werenski, he has been the backbone of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ defense group for many years and can thrive in all situations.
That leaves John Carlson and Jaccob Slavin, who are two polar opposites. Carlson is a great puck-mover while Slavin is one of the best defensive players in the entire league. No matter how the USA’s roster shapes up, they have an incredible group of defensemen to play in this tournament.
Team USA’s Goaltending
- Connor Hellebuyck
- Jake Oettinger
- Jeremy Swayman
Without a doubt, the strongest goaltending group in this tournament, USA will have a handful of Vezina-calibre goaltenders to choose from.
Connor Hellebucyk is one of only two active goaltenders with multiple Vezina Trophies, while Jake Oettinger is a perennial candidate, and Jeremy Swayman is working his way into that category very quickly. Teams will have a very tough time against this trio.
Team USA is going to be one of the best national teams that fans have seen in a long time. Having some incredible offense from their forwards and defensemen, while having a great mix of two-way play and elite goaltenders, many believe USA is the favorite coming into the tournament.
