Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (2024)

Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024

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    Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (1)

    Jack EichelJeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images

    We're all excited for the start of the new NHL season (well, except for maybe fans in Buffalo at the moment anyway) and the joy we're all getting watching games night in and night out every night has us all feeling alive once again.

    You know what else is exciting? We'll have best-on-best international hockey come February with the Four Nations Face-Off and the United States might have the most talented roster they've ever had in any international competition. Even though Canada will always be the team to beat, the U.S. will be the "plucky underdogs" in the same way the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Mets will be in the NLCS.

    The American roster will be stacked, and we've got a few months to hem and haw over who should be on it, what line or pairing they should play on, and which goalies they should bring along for the ride.

    The season just started, and things haven't gotten really spicy just yet so let's fire it up, shall we? We're picking out forward lines, defense pairings and three goalies like we've done in past iterations of this exercise. Just keep in mind, judging this based off of a couple games played this season would be pretty silly. Yes, we know your favorite player who didn't make the cut had a huge game, we're proud of him, too.

    Let us know what you think of this latest draft in the comments because we know you've got thoughts.

First-Forward Line

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    Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (2)

    Matthew Tkachuk and Auston MatthewsGavin Napier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

    Matthew Tkachuk - Auston Matthews - Jack Hughes

    The beauty of arranging the Team USA lines is that you can never go wrong with how you do it. We try to have positional integrity for the most part, but sometimes you just have to put trios together that seem like a boatload of fun. Case in point: This line.

    Auston Matthews' elite ability to score and play strong defensively matched up with Matthew Tkachuk's power forward strength and ability to make opponents thoroughly miserable with Jack Hughes on the other wing to make use of his skill, speed and playmaking abilities to force defenders to make really difficult snap decisions is an exercise in elite hockey and psychological warfare.

    Imagine getting driven up the wall by Tkachuk only to have Matthews and Hughes play off of each other to create a highlight reel goal to break it open or break the other team's back. All three are super skilled but offer a different profile for how they do things. It's a great mix and one that will surely drive Canada, Sweden and Finland all mad.

Second-Forward Line

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    Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (3)

    Jack Eichel and Kyle ConnorJonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images

    Kyle Connor - Jack Eichel - Brock Boeser

    Sometimes when you've got a team loaded with talent, you want to have one line that can pour gasoline on a fire and burn out of control with offense. That's the plan we're putting into action by putting Kyle Connor and Brock Boeser with Eichel.

    We could keep NHL teammates together and play the chemistry game like that, but this time around we're opting to go with the "all gas, no brakes" philosophy. Out of these three players, Boeser is perhaps the most defensively responsible one, but he's also a monster goal scorer same as Connor. Eichel can do it all by either scoring goals himself or setting up his teammates with exceptional playmaking.

    Sure, we could the proper thing and make sure any potential weaknesses are balanced out with other players that can complement them and make those shortcomings less likely to cause problems. Instead, we'll have these three players cause more problems for opponents than they can try to contain.

    Defense wins championships but making your best defense be an elite offense is way more fun.

Third-Forward Line

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    Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (4)

    J.T. MillerJeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images

    Jason Robertson - J.T. Miller - Clayton Keller

    Think back to 10, 15, or 20 years ago when teams would put together Olympic rosters and make sure to have a traditional checking line at the expense of leaving other elite point producers off the team.

    Having that kind of specialization made sense back then, but now that many forwards can play great, hard defensive hockey and pile up points it makes for luxurious roster building. Being able to put underrated defensive forwards who also happen to be elite scorers together for a third line is a beautiful thing.

    Robertson and Miller are each strong at the defensive end and can also score 30-40 goals and push or surpass 100 points in a season. It's a flex and a half to have them together and to put Utah captain Clayton Keller with them makes it a dangerous offensive line as much as it can frustrate opposing lines by staying in their face all over the ice.

    There's a balance to be struck between offense and defense, of course, but when the better defensive players are also a threat at the other end of the ice, it causes matchup problems in a big way for foes.

Fourth-Forward Line

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    Jake GuentzelJosh Lavallee/NHLI via Getty Images

    Brady Tkachuk - Vincent Trocheck - Jake Guentzel

    We're playing a little loose and free with positions here by having Jake Guentzel slide in on the right side, but having Brady Tkachuk and Vincent Trocheck there to provide equal amounts of skill and sandpaper in the lineup will help make this line go.

    Brady plays like big bro Matthew and might even be a bit more physical. Trocheck has proven everywhere he's gone in the NHL how strong of a two-way player he is and with the Rangers, he's been offensively valuable. as well. Heck, he was an all-star last season!

    Guentzel's accolades are many and having such a strong offensive player in this part of the lineup highlights the American depth and demonstrates a way they can have a major scoring threat all throughout the lineup. Having a forward group that doesn't offer opposing teams an opportunity to catch their breath is a very good thing.

    We slid Guentzel on the right side here despite being naturally a left wing, but all players at this level of ability can play anywhere on the ice. It's not like they're on rails and have to stick to them. It's not bubble hockey, after all.

First-Defense Pairing

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    Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (6)

    Quinn HughesJeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images

    Quinn Hughes - Charlie McAvoy

    When we laid out our defense pairs back in June, the idea we ran with was to have Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox pair up and dare opposing teams to do whatever they could to try and contain all of them. Good luck, right?

    Well... we're trying a slightly different approach this time by putting Boston's Charlie McAvoy with Hughes. Yes, we're aware this is an obscene luxury to be able to do this.

    It's not as if there's a talent drop-off between Fox and McAvoy, but McAvoy does play a little bit differently than Fox and therefore a bit different than Hughes as well. The idea of having Hughes and Fox together is a lot of fun and probably something we'd be likely to see in a situation where Team USA was pushing for more offense.

    However, for balance's sake, having Hughes and McAvoy together while Fox pairs up with another different elite defenseman can help the Americans control the game (ideally) for longer periods as opposed to having a dominating pairing out there for 25 minutes.

    Hughes is outstanding and so is McAvoy - you can't lose.

Second-Defense Pairing

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    Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (7)

    Adam FoxGregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

    Zach Werenski - Adam Fox

    We're big fans of all the possible choices to play defense for the United States, but we've been fans of both Zach Werenski and Adam Fox for a long while.

    Fox's credentials speak for themselves as a Norris Trophy winner and an elite point-scorer and puck mover. His play with the Rangers over the years has helped the Blueshirts take a huge step forward to becoming a legitimate Stanley Cup contender (and arguably a favorite). Having him on his own pairing away from Quinn Hughes allows us to have two guys control the game from the blue line for more than 40 minutes per game. Sounds good to us!

    Werenski playing in Columbus has helped keep wider attention off of him and the Blue Jackets' lack of success since he came into the league has kept his profile down as well. But we're paying attention and the strong season he had a year ago didn't go unnoticed. When he's healthy, Columbus is better off for that, but it also allows us to see how good he is as well.

Third-Defense Pairing

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    Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (8)

    Noah HanifinJeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images

    Noah Hanifin - John Carlson

    There will be a boatload of contenders for Team USA on defense and figuring out how to lay out pairings is both easy and immensely difficult because there are many very good ones. For the third pair, we're sticking with what we picked a few months ago with Noah Hanifin and John Carlson.

    Their skills are complementary with Hanifin being a strong two-way defenseman and Carlson having a legacy as a big-time shooter, scorer and point man on the blue line in his career with the Capitals.

    Even though Hanifin fell out of the spotlight in Calgary, he'll find a lot more eyeballs in Vegas on a very good Golden Knights team which will help remind us all why he was taken fifth overall in 2015.

    With the way we've picked this team out, Carlson is essentially the grizzled veteran on the roster at 34 years old. His credentials are clear, and he can still play strong hockey from the right side of the defense. There are a lot of choices to go with here and who the extras end up being will also get some playing time, but we're giving Carlson the edge for sustained great play.

Goaltending

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    Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (9)

    Connor HellebuyckJonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images

    Connor Hellebuyck, Jeremy Swayman, Jake Oettinger

    We've made one big change from June with this roster swapping out Thatcher Demko for Jake Oettinger.

    The United States has elite goaltending and elite depth to the point of hilarity. Honestly, draw names out of a hat for each game to see which of the three goalies will start and it'll be OK.

    Even with three great netminders, it's still Connor Hellebuyck's net to lose. He's the No. 1 guy and that's not changing any time soon. Of course, if it does, we'll be sure to make a big deal about it.

    Swayman getting signed so late into training camp and getting in just before the season started could have affected our thoughts about putting him on the team, but let's be real here, fat contract or not he belongs on this team.

    While Demko continues to deal with injury, it would've been mildly reckless (and perhaps a bit insulting) for us to pick him over Oettinger, especially since Oettinger is also extremely good. All this does is highlight how good Team USA has it in goal that they could lose one great goalie and then replace him with yet another great goaltender. America the beautiful, baby.

Updated Team USA Projections for 2025 Four Nations Face-Off: October 2024 (2024)
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