The 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-Off will take place from February 12-20. Three Philadelphia Flyers skaters and one coach will represent their respective countries on the international stage.
Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim will play for Team Canada while Rasmus Ristolainen mans the blue line for Team Finland.
Team USA had previously announced John Tortorella as an assistant under head coach Mike Sullivan.
NHL 4 Nations Face-Off
The international best-on-best will consist of a round robin between the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland. The two best teams in the round robin will advance to a one-game final.
The Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens, and TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins, will host the tournament games.
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The unfortunate reality of world politics means that Russia, one of the best hockey nations in the world, won’t get a fair opportunity. Czechia, Slovakia, and emerging nations with smaller national programs won’t compete in the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off.
NHL Returns To International Stage
If you’re starved for international hockey, you’re not alone. The NHL hasn’t participated in the Winter Olympics since 2014.
The 2016 World Cup of Hockey didn’t provide the same intensity of international rivalries that have helped define the game’s history spanning half a century.
The league and the NHLPA have finally come to an agreement that allows NHL superstars to carve a legacy that includes national representation. Connor McDavid has never shouldered the weight of the game’s home nation facing Auston Matthews in red, white, and blue at the game’s highest level.
The NHL will also send players to the 2026 and 2030 Winter Olympic Games.
Travis Konecny- Team Canada
Analysis of the rebuilding Flyers always seems to include the glaring lack of “top-end talent” on the roster. However, a nation with an outrageous luxury of skilled forwards at its disposal spent a roster space on Philadelphia’s leading scorer.
Travis Konecny set career highs with 33 goals and 68 points in 2023-24. He could shatter both numbers with a pace for 43 goals and 99 points through 25 games this season.
The London, Ontario native represented Team Canada at the World Juniors in 2015-16, the World Championships in 2017, and other junior tournaments on the international stage.
Konecny plays an aggressive transition game that isn’t primarily focused on defense. He’ll need to find a rhythm on a team with Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, and Sidney Crosby providing plenty of offensive momentum the other way.
His most important contributions might come on the penalty kill. Konecny led the NHL with six shorthanded goals in 2023-24.
Travis Sanheim- Team Canada
Team Canada could field two or three rosters that could compete for a gold medal in international competition. Cale Makar, Alex Pietrangelo, and Shea Theodore will lead a blue line with some of the best defenders in the world.
It makes Travis Sanheim’s accomplishment look even more impressive.
The 6-foot-4 defenseman starred for the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL before the Flyers selected him in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft.
However, he stepped onto a rocky road with John Tortorella during their first season together in 2022-23. The Flyers only hung onto Sanheim because Torey Krug enacted a no-trade clause during the 2023 offseason. The mishaps seem like a lifetime ago.
Sanheim has learned to use his athletic stride to cover ground as well as any NHL defenseman. He aggressively jumps into plays to fuel Philadelphia’s transition-focused offense, and he’s able to recover quickly to avoid defensive lapses.
He’s become a key cog to the NHL’s third-ranked penalty-killing unit, and he currently sits fifth in the league in average ice time per game.
Sanheim made it impossible to ignore his impact in one of the strongest efforts of his career on November 18 against the Buffalo Sabres.
He drove offense on almost every shift in 27:38 of ice time. He finished with one goal and one assist in a 5-2 victory that pushed Tim Saunders to boldly claim the 28-year-old defenseman is playing the best hockey of his eighth-year NHL career.
Will Sanheim make the lineup for Team Canada? Regardless, his presence on the roster signifies incredible growth as a professional in recent seasons.
John Tortorella- Team USA
Mike Sullivan will coach Team USA in the international best-on-best tournament. He’s chosen his long-time friend John Tortorella as an assistant on the staff.
Philadelphia’s polarizing bench boss was the head coach for Team USA at the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. Only Peter Laviolette has won more NHL regular-season games among American-born head coaches than Tortorella, a Massachusetts native.
Sullivan has won two Stanley Cups in eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Minnesota Wild head coach John Hynes and Pittsburgh assistant David Quinn make up the rest of the coaching staff for the Americans.
