Sasha Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Gus Forsling among first players on 4 Nations Face-Off rosters
The international best-on-best tournament will take place in February and feature the best NHL players the world has to offer
If there is one thing that hockey fans love when it comes to international play, it’s best-on-best.
That’s what we’re getting for next year’s 4 Nations Face-off.
The best NHL players from the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden will play a round-robin tournament next February.
Games will be held at Bell Centre in Montreal and TD Garden in Boston over a nine-day period from Feb. 12 to Feb 20.
Full rosters, which will consist of 20 skates and three goaltenders, will be submitted by the participation countries later this year, and full rosters will be announced between Nov. 29 and Dec. 2.
On Friday, we did get a taste of what those rosters will look like.
The first six players for each of the four teams were announced, and there were a few Florida Panthers among the group.
Representing the United States will be Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk, representing Finland will be Florida captain Sasha Barkov and skating for Team Sweden is Cats blueliner Gus Forsling.
“It's going to be unreal,” Forsling said Friday. “It's something you dream of, to be honest, to play against the best in the world. This is going to be no different.”
It’s been nearly a decade since the NHL has hosted or had its players participate in any kind of international tournament, with the last occurrence being the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
The last time the NHL paused its regular season for international tournament play was in 2014 for the Winter Olympics that were held in Sochi.
This is something that players and fans have been hoping for, and it should be a fun and exciting display of the best hockey some of the world has to offer.
“I think it’s the most fun,” Forsling said of best-on-best international play. “It’s like the playoffs. You can say the best teams play the best and the best players play the best, and that’s what the fans want to see and that’s what I want to see if I’m a fan too. I can’t wait to watch these games and play in these games.”
The full list of the first six players selected for each nation can be seen below:
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