Winners and Losers of Team USA Full Roster for 2025 4 Nations Face-Off

They're here and they're spectacular.

The rosters for the Four Nations Face-Off in February are set. We saw Sweden and Finland's rosters announced earlier on Wednesday, but now that we've got the rosters for Canada and Team USA it's time to dig in on how the American lineup shakes out.

After all the leaks and rumors, we know who Team USA coach Mike Sullivan has to work with to try and win gold in the first-ever event.

Many of the names are not a surprise. Heck, most of them shouldn't be a surprise given how we've been trying to pin down how it'll look for months now, but there are still plenty of takeaways from the way the United States group looks, and we've got some thoughts. There are winners and losers out of all of this and we're breaking them down for you.

As always, let us know what you think of the roster and our thoughts in the comments, we want to hear 'em.

Winners: Mike Sullivan Has Veterans to Work With

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Mike Sullivan

One of the classic tropes with team building for a short tournament is how coaches and GMs alike want to have a veteran presence on the team. Veterans, of course, are more mature, more experienced, and (ideally) less rattled in big moments. They've been there before, and they know what it takes to persevere, and coach Mike Sullivan has exactly that kind of team to work with for the Four Nations Face-Off.

The US roster has more players born before 1994 (five) than players born after the year 2000 (three). What they get with veterans like Chris Kreider, Brock Nelson, J.T. Miller, Connor Hellebuyck and Vincent Trocheck are guys who have been through it all and have lived the experiences of playing in big games.

That's not even taking into account other "older" guys like 30-year-olds forward Jake Guentzel who played for Sullivan and won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017 or defenseman Jaccob Slavin playing for a perennial contender in Carolina.

When going up against Canada who attacks with wave after wave of the best players in the world, that experience (ideally) helps to battle against them and not get stunned at potentially watching one of the scariest five-man units ever put together coming at them or defending against their own attack. Being a deer in the headlights in this kind of tournament turns you into roadkill fast.

Losers: American Offensive Specialists

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Cole Caufield

Putting a roster together is difficult because there are hard decisions to be made at every position, but the United States brain trust better hope they don't lose because of a lack of goal-scoring.

Three of the top five American goal-scorers did not make the roster. Canadiens winger Cole Caufield (16), Sabres center Tage Thompson (13) and Devils winger Stefan Noesen (13) did not make the cut up front. USA GM Bill Guerin opted for a little more defense and snarl with Vincent Trocheck along with size and strength around the net with Chris Kreider and Brock Nelson.

Caufield, Thompson and Noesen are certainly more likely to be classified as shooters with Caufield and Thompson being especially dangerous on the power play and with the puck on their stick. At 23 years old, Caufield will certainly be a candidate for the Olympics in a couple years and Thompson at 27 years old should be as well. At 31, Noesen will need to keep being an advanced stat machine while also continuing to score goals to get more attention.

Winners: Goaltending Supremacy

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Jake Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman and Connor Hellebuyck pose with Justin Bieber

We knew that no matter what, Team USA's goaltending was going to be unmatched for this tournament and the selections of Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman hammer that home.

With Thatcher Demko still battling back from injury, these three goalies were destined to get the call for the 4 Nations Face-Off and it's hard to go wrong in picking any of them to start any game at all.

Sure, Sweden and Finland have excellent depth, and Canada is going to find a way to make it work for themselves by having an incredible team in front of their netminders, but this trio for the U.S. is a dream team type setup.

You'd have to expect Hellebuyck to be the No. 1 with Oettinger backing up while Swayman holds it down to pinch hit, but honestly, if anyone struggles at all, there is no reason to worry about switching things up because there's very little drop in quality. The only downside, of course, is only one goalie can play at a time. It's a wealth of riches in goal for the Americans and they've got a Scrooge McDuck money bin to swim around in.

Losers: Opponents' Patience

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Matthew and Brady Tkachuk

Arguably one of the best parts of best-on-best international tournaments is how naturally heated the games get, particularly when it's a rivalry matchup. Emotions are already running high with guys representing their country and attempting to prove they're the best hockey nation in the world.

It's that emotional side that makes the Team USA roster so much more dangerous and deeply frustrating. Mike Sullivan will be able to potentially run a line out there with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk together with Vincent Trocheck at a given moment means opponents have to do their best to turn the other cheek and skate away.

If opponents give into the poking, prodding, chirping and cheap-shotting they'll get to experience at the Tkachuk's hands, they'll wind up in the penalty box and allowing a team as stacked as the United States with Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Jack Hughes, Kyle Connor and Adam Fox among everyone else to get on the power play is a recipe for disaster and an easy loss.

Make no mistake, the Tkachuk brothers are there because they're tremendous all-around players who can fill up the net and set up linemates for scoring opportunities. But they're also there to make sure whoever they're up against has a miserable experience for 60 minutes each game.

Winners: Being Bill Guerin Connected

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Matt Boldy and Brock Faber

Sometimes picking a team isn't always about picking the absolute best players no matter what. Like it or not, politics plays a role in how a roster is assembled and when there are so many hard choices to make, there are tiebreakers involved, and managers are going to go with the players they know best.

For Team USA GM Bill Guerin that meant keeping the peace at home in Minnesota. If there was a toss-up on defense between, say, Capitals veteran John Carlson, Shayne Gostisbehere of Carolina and Wild youngster Brock Faber, the question you have to ask is who does Guerin know best? Faber is an outstanding defenseman already in the NHL, but he's also the youngest member of Team USA at 22 years old. He's worthy of selection, but he's also currently ninth among American defensemen in scoring.

You can have the same discussion about Matt Boldy getting the call up front over the likes of Cole Caufield, Tage Thompson, Clayton Keller, Alex Tuch, or Stefan Noesen. Some of those guys are older and some are stronger in specialist roles than Boldy and others have more international experience, but while Boldy is among the top American scorers this season, the ultimate tiebreaker is that Guerin makes the final call and he wants his guy there because he trusts him.

If there's some kind of awkward comfort here it's that even in picking an international all-star roster, sometimes it's more about who you know than what you do even if what you do is freakin' good anyway.