For the first time in nearly a decade, since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, the hockey universe will get a best-on-best tournament. The 4 Nations Face-Off, starting this Wednesday February 12, will feature the best players from Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States in a week long tournament to spark some excitement and give us a preview of next year’s Winter Olympics.
The tournament is replacing the All-Star weekend this season. This will be just fine with almost all hockey fans as the Skills Competition and All-Star Game are usually one of the few things that can unite fans of all teams on one opinion. This tournament has the potential to be significantly more engaging and interesting than any All-Star Game has for decades.
We thought we would finally get a chance to see Connor McDavid play with Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. But that may not happen yet as Crosby deals with an upper-body injury suffered last week.
Because the tournament was set up on short notice less than two years in advance, logistics became difficult in including too many teams and players, especially since this is exclusive to NHL players. As a result, we only get to see four teams compete. But there are a few other nations that could and maybe should have been included in these festivities. Many NHL players felt they should have more teams participating as well.
We took to Twitter this week to ask the fans which other nation should have been included in the 4 Nations (or, I guess 5 Nations) Face-off.
Want to take part in Sunday Census polls? We send them out every week on our Twitter at @oilrigEDM. Follow along or send in ideas for the next poll!
The four Nations Face-off is set to begin next week and although there are already strong contenders, which country would you have liked to see participate?
— The Oil Rig (@oilrigEDM) February 7, 2025
The well-oiled German machine
We’re an Edmonton Oilers publication first and foremost, so it should come as no surprise to find Germany being a popular choice. Sure enough, 31.5% of voters chose Germany as who should have been the fifth team participating, the second most popular option.
Germany has been progressing up the international hockey rankings quite quickly in recent years with a few star players making an impact in the NHL. Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stutzle, and Moritz Seider would be the players leading the way. However, the country has yet to make a huge footprint in the NHL with just six skaters and one goalie with games recorded this season. Lukas Reichel, JJ Peterka, and Nico Sturm are the other skaters while Philipp Grubauer would be the goalie. Note, Nico Daws may represent Germany as he was born there, but has represented Canada internationally in the past.
For that reason, they may not be able to ice a roster in an NHL-hosted tournament quite yet. But they are quickly becoming a competitive hockey nation and should continue that progress over the next decade as this generation grows up watching Draisaitl, Seider, and Stutzle.
The resurgence of Czechia as a hockey nation
Czechia’s hockey program has done a fantastic job over the past decade, helping to raise the stature of Czech hockey closer to where they were around the turn of the century. Czech players have been joining the NHL like crazy in recent years, and with the U20 World Juniors team medalling for three consecutive years for the first time in their history, the future is bright. Some others feel the same, with Czechia getting 21.9% of the vote in this weeks poll, finishing third.
David Pastrnak, one of the most prominent Czech players in the league, has been a vocal proponent that Czechia should have been included in this tournament, and for good reasons as described above.
The Czech team would be incredibly competitive, as well. Their defence may be weak, but the forwards and goaltending would be solid enough to make up for it.
A possible Czech roster might line up like this:
| LW | C | RW | G |
| Tomas Hertl | Martin Necas | David Pastrnak | Karel Vejmelka |
| Ondrej Palat | Pavel Zacha | Jiri Kulich | Lukas Dostal |
| Jakub Vrana | Filip Chytil | Jakub Lauko | Petr Mrazek |
| Adam Klapka | David Kampf | Radek Faksa | |
| LD | RD | ||
| Radko Gudas | Filip Hronek | ||
| Jan Rutta | David Jiricek | ||
| John Ludvig |
Could the Slovaks ice a team?
The Slovakian hockey program has not had much success in recent years. They hit a peak around the turn of the century and have since struggled on an international playing field. They have only won three medals in the three major international tournaments since 2010. A silver at the 2012 World Championship, bronze at the 2015 World Junior Classic, and bronze at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
As a result, the Slovak team received just 2.7% of the vote share, finishing last in this week’s poll.
That being said, there is still a solid pipeline of Slovakian hockey players reaching the NHL. A few high profile younger players are working their way into bigger roles in the NHL as we speak. However, much the same as Germany, there have only been seven Slovakian skaters (and no goalies) play a game in the NHL so far this season.
An example of the talent that could play for a hypothetical Team Slovakia is a solid foundation, however. Possible options include Samuel Honzek, Juraj Slafkovsky, Simon Nemec, Martin Pospisil, Martin Fehervary, Eric Cernak, and Tomas Tatar.
5 Nations Face-Off athletes from Russia?
There is a reason that Russia was excluded from this tournament, due to the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, leading to them being left off of most international sporting events. Continuing the earlier trend of Russia being excluded from these events due to state-sponsored doping amongst the participating athletes.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the hockey talent coming out of Russia. And with 43.8% of the vote, they win this weeks poll.
It is not a true best-on-best tournament without the incredible players from Russia in the NHL. Alex Ovechkin is about to become the greatest goal-scorer of all time, maybe even by the end of this season. Many of the best goalies in the league are Russian. And some of the most prolific scorers in the league would be on this team. The major knock against a Team Russia is the lack of centres, which end up requiring players who are primarily wingers but have played centre before to fill those spots.
Let’s take a look at who might make this roster for a hypothetical five Nations Athletes from Russia team:
| LW | C | RW | G |
| Kirill Kaprizov | Evgeni Malkin | Nikita Kucherov | Andrei Vasilevskiy |
| Alexander Ovechkin | Pavel Buchnevich | Andrei Svechnikov | Ilya Sorokin |
| Artemi Panarin | Ivan Barbashev | Kirill Marchenko | Igor Shesterkin |
| Dmitri Voronkov | Vladimir Namestnikov | Valeri Nichushkin | |
| LD | RD | ||
| Mikhail Sergachev | Nikita Zadorov | ||
| Dmitry Orlov | Vladislav Gavrikov | ||
| Ivan Provorov | Alexander Romanov |
Which other nation would you have included in this tournament? Drop a comment down below!
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
