Updated Projected Team USA Roster for the 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-off

With international hockey featuring the best of the NHL finally coming back, it's time once again for us to examine what a hypothetical Team USA roster will look like.

This will be the first time since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey that we have seen anything close to a best-on-best international men's ice hockey tournament, and the talent level for the United States has blossomed since then.

Team USA should have an opportunity to build an incredibly talented team that is deep at center, left wing and on defense, and has a franchise-level goalie who can help steal games if needed.

We tried really hard to keep players in their natural positions without too much movement, but some exceptions did have to be made for various reasons.

So with all of that said, let's get into what our potential 2025 Team USA roster could look like.

Matthew Tkachuk-Auston Matthews-Alex DeBrincat

Matthews is the best pure goal-scorer in the NHL and the best American-born player in the league. He has a lock on the top-line center spot for the foreseeable future. As long as he's healthy, he's guaranteed to post 40 goals every year and might make a serious run at 70 this season.

Tkachuk might be the second-best American-born player in the league and is also a natural fit on the top line. There is nothing that he doesn't do well.

Do you want him to play a skill game? He's got that and is one of the top offensive players in the league. Want more of a possession, physical game where you have to grind things out? That might be where he is at his best. Want somebody to get under the other team's skin and rattle some cages? Nobody is better.

DeBrincat might seem a little redundant on this line (his skill is finishing and scoring goals, which is exactly what the other two guys do), but his goal-scoring tends to overshadow his playmaking skills. In the first half of the 2023-24 season, he has averaged 0.99 primary assists per 60 minutes of five-on-five play, a rate that ranks him 37th out of 245 players (minimum 500 minutes).

Jason Robertson-Jack Hughes-Brady Tkachuk

While the first line will simply outscore you, the second line might do the same and dazzle you in the process.

Robertson and Hughes are not only two of the most productive forwards in the NHL, but they're also two of the most exciting, creative players to watch. The only thing that holds Hughes back is the fact that a lot of his career has been marred by injuries. But when he is on the ice, he is as good as any player in hockey.

Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Robertson and Hughes rank eighth (Hughes) and 16th (Robertson) in points per game.

Since the United States is probably at its thinnest on the right wing, we are flipping Tkachuk over his to his off-wing. For one, he is good enough to play in the top-six. And second, this line could probably use a little of the edge he brings.

Kyle Connor-Jack Eichel-Brock Boeser

Eichel is good enough to be a top-line center on a Stanley Cup-winning team, and he's good enough to be a top-line center in a tournament like this on most teams. The only two exceptions to that might be the United States and Canada.

The same thing is true for Connor on the left wing. He is a lock for 30 goals at a bare minimum every season and can make a serious run at 50 with just a little bit of puck luck.

Boeser might not be a complete player, but he is another strong finisher who can score goals in bunches. A lot of his production this season might be percentage-driven, and his role in the top nine might be a testament to how thin the right-wing depth chart is for the United States, but he wouldn't be out of place here.

Jake Guentzel-J.T. Miller-Clayton Keller

We had Tage Thompson centering this line in our first projected roster, but the combination of his taking a step backward this season offensively and Miller once again scoring at an absurd rate makes this a tough call.

Thompson's combination of size (6'6", 220lbs) and skill is still very—very—tempting, but it is really hard to overlook what Miller has done offensively over the past two years. Maybe he will slow down by next season, but for now, he gets the nod.

Guentzel is one of the best pure goal-scorers in the league, and while people will knock him down a peg for playing the bulk of his time next to Sidney Crosby, he's a great player all on his own. He has a great shot, he is smart, knows how to find the open spot in the offensive zone and is fearless when it comes to going to the net given his size.

Keller has his flaws defensively but is another player whose offensive upside is tough to overlook. This is not an NHL team that has to be built using salary-cap constraints where your fourth line has to be full of cap-friendly grinders and young players trying to make a name for themselves in the NHL. You aren't limited here. Take the best players.

Adam Fox-Quinn Hughes

This is probably the easiest line or pairing on Team USA to pick out. It is such a no-brainer that anything other than these two being on your first pairing would be coaching and roster malpractice. Not only are they two of the best defensemen in hockey and set to be Norris Trophy contenders for the foreseeable future, but they should also—in theory—complement each other perfectly.

Nobody is forced to play on their off-side. Hughes is the most productive and electrifying defenseman in the league in terms of playmaking and offense. Fox is as solid as a two-way player that you will find at the position.

With 62 points in his first 49 games, Hughes is on pace for 103 points as a defenseman, while Fox is on track for 77 points. Neither player is a liability defensively.

It might be the best defense pairing that any team can put together in an international tournament in 2025.

Jaccob Slavin-Charlie McAvoy

The Slavin-McAvoy pairing might not be as good as the Fox-Hughes duo, but it isn't far behind.

In terms of pure defense and shutdown ability, they might have the edge.

Over the past three seasons, there have been 225 defensemen who have logged at least 1,000 minutes of five-on-five hockey. Slavin (11th) and McAvoy (16th) are both among the top 20 in terms of the fewest expected goals against per 60 minutes when they are on the ice.

Their excellence is not limited to the defensive side of the puck, either. While neither player puts up numbers that compare with those of Hughes, McAvoy is a safe bet for 50 points over 82 games (while mostly playing a defensive, shutdown role), while Slavin is excellent at moving the puck up the ice and exiting the defensive zone.

This is your shutdown pairing with a nice punch of offense to complement it.

Luke Hughes-Brock Faber

This is the exact opposite third-pairing we projected when we looked at a potential Team USA roster over the summer.

On that roster, we had a couple of veterans in John Carlson and Zach Werenski.

Now we're rolling the dice with youth and going with Hughes and Faber.

Faber has burst onto the scene in Minnesota as one of the top rookies in the NHL and doesn't look out of place offensively or defensively. He's already been a rock, and assuming he continues on that trajectory into next season, he should be a bona fide top-pairing player.

Hughes, meanwhile, is already blossoming into a star and core player with the Devils. Entering the All-Star break he already has eight goals and 26 total points this season in 47 games as a 20-year-old.

Connor Hellebuyck, Jeremy Swayman, Thatcher Demko

Hellebuyck and Swayman are the easy and obvious choices here.

Hellebuyck has been one of the best, most consistent and most impactful goalies in the NHL for the better part of the past decade. He is still playing at that level, is showing no signs of slowing down and is a big part of why the Winnipeg Jets are one of the best teams in the NHL this season.

When he is on top of his game, the list of goalies who are better than him can be counted on one hand (while still having fingers left over). He's good. Really good.

Swayman has also emerged as a top-level goalie. The only potential knock against him is that he has never really been a full-time starting goalie in the NHL and plays behind a really good defensive team. The good news in a short tournament is that he will also be playing behind an outstanding defense (especially on this team) and will not have to play a ton of games.

The wild-card pick here is going with Demko over Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger.

Is that an example of recency bias at play? It sure is! But Oettinger has been off his game so far this season and Demko has bounced back in a big way and been a star in Vancouver.

Demko has been an outstanding goalie for most of his career in Vancouver, with the 2022-23 season being what looks to be a significant outlier. Oettinger has the potential to be a game-stealer when he is at his best, and if he bounces back to that level, he might jump back over Demko on our list.

Until then, Demko gets our nod for the third goalie.

Data in this article via NHL.com and Natural Stat Trick.