On his first day as the reigning NHL most valuable player, Colorado Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon had one of his long-standing wishes come true.
MacKinnon is going to get his chance to represent Canada in a best-on-best international tournament at the men’s senior level for the first time in his career. He, along with Avalanche teammates Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen, were among the players named Friday morning to preliminary rosters for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.
Makar and MacKinnon were among the six players named to Canada’s roster. Rantanen was named to Finland’s roster. The United States and Sweden are the other two participating nations.
The other four players named to Canada’s preliminary roster were Connor McDavid, Brad Marchand, Brayden Point … and MacKinnon’s close friend and mentor Sidney Crosby. MacKinnon has spoken repeatedly about wanting to play with the 36-year-old Crosby for Canada before he retires.
“We played together in 2015 at (the IIHF World Championship) when I was 19 or 20,” MacKinnon said Thursday night. “I’d love to be on his wing. That would be cool. I think we play well together. That would be fun.”
Crosby said that MacKinnon started talking about the idea of them playing together at this tournament on Day 1 of a golf trip they took together recently. MacKinnon said Thursday night that Crosby was one of the first people to call him after the Avs star was named league MVP for the first time.
“You look at all the years the guys had and it was pretty tight,” Crosby said. “But that home (point) streak, how consistent he was, and just how big he was to his team’s success, it showed through. Seeing the way he works and how committed he is, I know he’s doing that to win hockey games but to be recognized, I’m sure it feels good and it’s well deserved.”
The 4 Nations Face-Off takes place in February in lieu of an NHL All-Star game next season. It is also intended as kind of an appetizer for the NHL’s return to full participation in the Winter Olympics, which will happen at the 2026 Games in Italy.
There hasn’t been a best-on-best international hockey tournament with full NHL participation since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. MacKinnon played in that tournament but as a member of Team North America — a roster of young players from the U.S. and Canada.
That team featured many of the top stars in the game today like MacKinnon, McDavid, Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel. None of these players have had the chance to represent their countries on a best-on-best international stage.
Rantanen is joined on the Finland roster by Aleksander Barkov, Miro Heiskanen, Jusse Saros, Sebastian Aho and Esa Lindell. The event will start in Montreal and finish in Boston. It will feature three round-robin games for each country and then a Feb. 20 championship game at TD Garden.
MacKinnon and Makar will face Rantanen on Feb. 17, the final group-stage game for both countries.
Sweden’s first six players include Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman, Willian Nylander, Filip Forsberg, Gustav Forsling and Mika Zibanejad. The U.S. preliminary roster includes Matthews, Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox and Charlie McAvoy.
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Originally Published: June 28, 2024 at 9:18 a.m.
