Updated Team Canada Roster 10 Months From the 4 Nations Faceoff

Adam GretzApril 13, 2024
Updated Team Canada Roster 10 Months From the 4 Nations Faceoff0 of 8

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The Four Nations faceoff tournament is less than a year away, featuring the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland in the first best-on-best international hockey tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. It will take place in February 2025, and be an opening act for the NHL’s return to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.

Today we are going to take an updated look at a potential Team Canada roster with the tournament just 10 months away.

As it always does in international best-on-best tournaments, Canada figures to have one of the best and most complete rosters. The forward talent is ridiculous, especially at center where it has three slam-dunk Hall of Famers playing in the middle of the lineup, including a couple of all-time greats. It is also an especially deep defensive roster that might even have a Norris Trophy candidate during the 2024-25 season sitting as a healthy scratch for tournament games.

The only big question mark here 2ill be in goal where Canada does not seem to have a clear No. 1 starting option. The good news is the rest of the roster is so good it might not even matter.

So with all that said, let’s look at the updated potential roster for Team Canada. It is an outstanding potential team.

First-Line Forwards1 of 8

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Steven Stamkos – Connor McDavid – Zach Hyman

McDavid is the most dominant offensive player in hockey and already one of the all-time best. His placement as the No. 1 center is a slam dunk Stamkos is also a pretty good option here as a top-line winger as he is still an elite scorer and the second-best goal-scorer of this era. Even at age 33, he remains a 40-goal, 80-point scorer. He still has a couple of good years left in him.

The name that might stand out here is Hyman. But he is also a worthy pick.

It’s not only because he is a 50-goal scorer during the 2023-24 season, but because he already has proven chemistry on McDavid’s wing. He has already scored 89 goals (and counting) in the past two seasons.

Second-Line Forwards2 of 8

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Brad Marchand – Nathan MacKinnon – Mitch Marner

How deep is Canada’s center position when Nathan MacKinnon is the second-line option? He would be the top-line center on pretty much any other international roster. Over the past two seasons, he has 93 goals and 248 total points and is probably 1A and 1B with McDavid among the league’s best players.

He is also surrounded on this line by two of the most complete wingers in hockey.

Marner has scored at a 30-goal, 95-point pace (per 82 games) the past three seasons and has steadily improved his defensive game to the point where he was a Selke Trophy finalist a year ago.

Marchand will be 36 years old when the tournament takes place, but there is nothing to suggest he will not be worthy of a top-six spot here as a winger. He remains an elite two-way, possession-driving winger that is also one of the sport’s best pests. This line might not ever give up the puck.

Third-Line Forwards3 of 8

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Sam Reinhart – Sidney Crosby – Mark Stone

There would be some temptation to put Crosby in a wing position to play him alongside his good friend MacKinnon (or put MacKinnon on Crosby’s wing) but I am going to go in a different direction and make Crosby the best third-line center of all time.

He will be 37 years old at the tournament, but there is no reason to think he will still be a world-class player. Because he still is this season and has had one of the best age 35-plus seasons in the history of the league. He can still carry a team by himself (as he is for the Pittsburgh Penguins right now this very season) and is still a dominant force.

Stone’s big question mark will simply be whether or not he is healthy. Injuries are the only thing that slow him down, but he is as good of a two-line winger as there is. Putting him on a line with Crosby is another duo unlikely to ever give up the puck for long stretches of play.

Reinhart has become an elite scorer since arriving in Florida and is coming off a career year in 2023-24 that has already seen him score 54 goals. The fact this is a third-line is a testament to Canada’s forward depth.

Fourth-Line Forwards4 of 8

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Connor Bedard – Brayden Point – Jonathan Marchessault

Then we have this as a potential fourth line. It is unbelievable a 50-goal, 90-point scorer like Brayden Point is your fourth-line center, but it is also completely valid on this roster. Marchessault is also a proven 40-goal scorer and a key player on the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.

The great part of this line is Bedard, who is the game’s brightest young star and is on his way toward becoming a superstar.

He has matched the hype in his rookie season and is nearly a point-per-game player on a bad Chicago team with little help around him. Here he gets to play with actual star talent.

First-Defense Pairing5 of 8

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Morgan Rielly – Cale Makar

Makar is simply the best all-around defenseman in hockey right now. He scores like a top-line forward and has scored at a 90-point pace (per 82 games) the past three seasons. He blends that elite offensive skill with shutdown defense and has been a consistent Norris Trophy finalist from the moment he arrived in the NHL.

He has only one time averaged less than a point-per-game in the NHL, and that was during his rookie season — when he still averaged 0.88 points per game.

Rielly does not quite match Makar’s offensive skills, but he is still an elite playmaker as a defenseman and has experience playing with superstar offensive talents. He is a worthy top-pairing defender and when paired with Makar keeps everybody on their natural side. This is as good of a top-defense pairing as you will find.

Second-Defense Pairing6 of 8

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Josh Morrissey – Dougie Hamilton

The big if here is all dependent on Hamilton’s health. He has been limited to just 20 games during the 2023-24 season, but when he is healthy and on the ice he is as good of an all-around defenseman as you will find in the NHL and has been a consistent Norris Trophy contender.

Few defenders in the league blend goal-scoring and possession-driving play quite like Hamilton does, and he is a much better defensive player than he sometimes gets credit for being.

His absence this season has been one of the big reasons why the New Jersey Devils underachieved and disappointed so much.

Morrissey is not quite the all-around player that Hamilton is, but he has taken a huge leap forward in the past couple of years as a playmaker and point producer.

Again, this pairing also keeps everybody on their correct sides and doesn’t have anybody being forced to play on their off-hand.

Third-Defense Pairing7 of 8

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Devon Toews – Noah Dobson

When it came to the right-handed defenseman for the third-pairing, we had it narrowed down to Dobson and Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard, and either one would be a worthy pick. Both should be on the roster but it will simply come down to who gets a jersey on game days.

We’re going with Dobson here because he and Bouchard have similar numbers and impacts, but Dobson does not have the luxury of playing behind Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins every night. He is putting up his numbers while playing for a pretty ordinary New York Islanders team offensively, while also being (in my opinion) a better defensive player.

I am going with Toews as the left-shot on this pairing because he has been one of the most underrated all-around defensemen in the league the past few years, especially since arriving in Colorado. He is great in the transition game, is a rock-solid defender, and has enough offense to produce big points, especially with talented players.

Goalies8 of 8

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Adin Hill – Cam Talbot – Jordan Binnington

If there is an Achilles heel for this team Canada roster, it is here in goal. That is also the one position you do not want to have a major question mark or weakness in because it is the one position that can turn a great team into an ordinary team quickly. It is also probably the weakest goalie position of any team in the Four Nations tournament.

Who do you even start here?

Hill probably gets the nod after backstopping the Golden Knights to a Stanley Cup and following it with a pretty strong 2023-24 performance.

Talbot has had some strong individual seasons in his career, including a very surprising performance during the 2023-24 season, but he is probably not what you think of as an elite goalie.

Binnington won a Stanley Cup in St. Louis during the 2018-19 season but then saw his career steadily regress in the seasons since then. A strong 2023-24 season has put him back in play as a potential option here for a roster spot.

All of these goalies are a question mark, however, and a lot can change with any of them over the next year. This is not the best position here for this Team Canada roster. They do not need any of them to be great. They just need them to be good enough.