Updated Projected Team Canada Roster for the 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-Off
It's about time the World Cup of Hockey makes its triumphant return.
In 2025, an official best-on-best hockey tournament will be played as the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off stages its inaugural tournament next year.
Forget all the kvetching about the Olympics and everything that goes into that. Heck, even forget that the 2025 edition of it will feature just the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland. We're finally going to see the best current NHLers face off against each other in international competition and, man, that rules.
While Adam Gretz took care of picking out the United States roster, I'm here to represent Canada and play the part of general manager. Set me up with your finest poutine and let's pick out four lines, three pairs and three goalies that are going to run roughshod over the rest of the competition.
There are a lot of hard choices to make all over the ice and by the time this tournament drops the puck in 2025, we're sure things will look a little different and there will be risers and fallers. But let's get into it.
First-Line Forwards
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Steven Stamkos, Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman
The beauty of doing something like this is being able to smash the "Easy" button and throw teammates together. It especially helps when the teammates are Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman and they're lighting the league on fire with their combined scoring.
Assembling a top line with McDavid and Hyman is a no-brainer and since we're not holding firm to positional integrity up front since just about everyone who's anyone plays center, we need to ask some pivots to slide to the wing. Fortunately, there's a fine Canadian superstar who's been doing that for a few seasons now: Steven Stamkos.
Having Stamkos as the hired gun to play the wing with the Oilers is enough to make anyone jealous to have such an option. His overall experience, longstanding success and Hall of Fame career make him a shoo-in for this group. He'll be one of the more veteran players on the roster, but he's still got the shot and can still pile up points like few others can.
Good luck to everyone else trying to shut them down.
Second-Line Forwards
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Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Mitch Marner
We already put Sidney Crosby's face on the front of this story because, of course, he's going to be on the team. What we're going to do to help make storylines easy to write is put the other superstar player from Nova Scotia, Nathan MacKinnon, on his wing.
MacKinnon is in the middle of what could be his first MVP season right now, and Crosby is having the kind of year that's reminding everyone he's still a superstar.
That both guys hail from the Maritimes in Eastern Canada and are elite players is pretty incredible and surely no one would ever write about this or make a big deal about it.
Having Mitch Marner join MacKinnon and Crosby to finish out the second line is just a treat. His speed, skill and creativity as well as his hounding ability on the other side of the puck make this line a nightmare to deal with all around.
If there's a "catch" here, it's whether Marner would be the ideal guy to play with Crosby. It's not as if there wouldn't be other options on the Team Canada roster, but let's be honest, these guys could work things out just fine.
Third-Line Forwards
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Brad Marchand, Connor Bedard, Sam Reinhart
This trio affords Canada the ability to annoy the heck out of everyone, have an incredible young playmaker and scorer shine, and to have a guy who feasts upon pucks around the net both at even strength and on the power play.
Marchand's ability to lead and get under everyone else's skin are his calling cards. In a tournament like this, those abilities and the fact that he can score and create make him invaluable. As much as he drives NHL opponents bananas, he'll do it four-fold in this setting.
Bedard is absolutely going to be part of this team, and perhaps his place would be better on the wing with the likes of McDavid or Crosby. But with what he's shown during his rookie season in Chicago, we feel pretty good about him in this spot centering behind those two. With a veteran like Marchand next to him to keep the Tkachuk brothers at bay, he should do just fine here.
Reinhart on this line works out well considering how he's filling up the net this season and how he's managed to improve every year of his career. Factor in his World Junior success for Canada, and he's a player made to shine in this kind of tournament.
Fourth-Line Forwards
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Mathew Barzal, Brayden Point, Mark Stone
Mathew Barzal's speed and skill can make him a game-breaker from this spot in the lineup. Matching him up with Brayden Point's all-around superb play and Stone, who can make any line a lot more difficult to contain, makes this trio a super one.
All Point has done in Tampa Bay is become one of the best offensive weapons in the league. What makes him great is he can help his linemates reach greater heights by setting them up and drive the attack.
What more needs to be said about Stone? Looking at what he's done in Vegas tells us everything we need to know. He's strong on the puck, plays exceptionally hard every shift, and he'll lay it all on the line for his team. Doing that for his country? Even better if you ask us.
Putting these three together offers a smorgasbord of traits each could use to cause problems for opponents. What's the Canadian version of a Swiss Army knife?
First-Defense Pairing
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Morgan Rielly and Cale Makar
Having Cale Makar on the top pairing isn't a surprise, but finding the right partner for him is a more difficult choice.
Makar's all-around greatness makes him the easy pick. He moves the puck with ease, can pile up points and can use his speed and tactical play to make defending opponents that much easier to do.
What makes Morgan Rielly a great pick to play with him is that he plays such a smart game. He can do a lot of what Makar can do as well, but he can play equally well on the power play or penalty kill and with an understated hard-nosed ability. He's not going to deliver thundering hits, but he will make life miserable for opposing forwards because he's physical and tenacious.
Rielly is also a tremendous leader on and off the ice. Not that this team needs leadership with all the others it has, but it's notable for the 29-year-old given what he does for the Maple Leafs during the season.
Second-Defense Pairing
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Josh Morrissey and Noah Dobson
Josh Morrissey exploded as an offensive threat last season for Winnipeg, and he's continued to do it again this year. Considering he does that and defends exceptionally well too, it makes him an automatic addition to this group.
The 28-year-old makes the game look exceptionally simple even though he's playing a very challenging position. It also makes him an ideal partner for a younger player like Noah Dobson.
Dobson has emerged as an outstanding playmaker and setup man for the Islanders, and he's given them a top-level puck carrier and playmaker.
With the number of defensemen Canada can pick from for the World Cup, a lot of the skills and abilities might seem similar, but when they come from players at the top of the league for production, that's OK.
Dobson coming up through the Islanders' system will give him a bit more defensive know-how because that's how he's had to play every game.
Third-Defense Pairing
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Evan Bouchard and Dougie Hamilton
Injury has allowed us to somewhat forget about how outstanding Dougie Hamilton is on defense, but he is really good.
Not only is the 30-year-old great with the puck and has an outstanding shot, he's also been an advanced-stat darling for the past few years. Not that we'll really need to wade through fancy stats to pick players for this team, it's just another big feather in his cap.
That he's been out of the Devils' lineup for so long and New Jersey has struggled in his absence tells us how important he is to the team.
On the flip side, watching Evan Bouchard emerge in Edmonton has been exciting. One thing the Oilers have missed is a playmaker from the blue line to go with all of their forward talent.
The 24-year-old is that guy and teaming him with the all-around stud that is Hamilton means no one else in the World Cup can catch a break against any of Canada's defense pairs.
Goalies
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Stuart Skinner, Adin Hill, Tristan Jarry
If there's a "weakness" to be found on the Canada roster, I suppose it's in goal.
While Canada doesn't have Roberto Luongo or Martin Brodeur to select anymore, and Marc-André Fleury may not be around next year for us to pick him, it makes choosing three goalies a lot spicier.
With every team being an all-star team in the World Cup, having the best goalies will be of the utmost importance.
Stuart Skinner has become unbeatable in Edmonton the past few months and he's our No. 1. We're choosing to ignore how the season began for him this year, and we'll choose to believe the player we've seen recently is who we're going to see on the world's stage.
If Skinner isn't the guy, then Adin Hill sure has taken control of his opportunities. What some thought was a Cinderella run for him leading Vegas to the Stanley Cup last season has proved to be more what he's capable of on a consistent basis. He's been brilliant for the Golden Knights again this year and is deserving of Vezina consideration this year.
When it comes to Tristan Jarry, he's the veteran in this group and has been really good for the Penguins this season. He was good for them last season, too, but health proved to be an issue for him.
Regardless, Canada could play any one of these three goaltenders and go on to win gold. But one of these guys catching fire in the tournament would make it a lot easier to claim victory in the end anyway.
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