On Wednesday afternoon and night, the four countries participating in the upcoming Four Nations Face-Off made highly anticipated announcements of their respective rosters. It was a major part of the process to bring best-on-best hockey back before the Winter Olympics commence in 14 months.
The Blackhawks will be represented at the Four Nations Face-Off, but not quite as much as they would have liked. Forward Teuvo Teravainen will be playing for Team Finland, but Connor Bedard wasn’t able to crack Team Canada’s roster and Alex Vlasic couldn’t make it onto Team USA.
Teuvo Teravainen seemed like a no-brainer to make Team Finland, so I thought it was interesting that he was listed as a bottom-line forward on the roster announcement. These announcements are far from a game-one lineup, so it’s probably not the best choice to read into that at all. But while there’s plenty of talent on this roster, the country’s talent pool is shallow enough that Teravainen was almost certainly going to make the roster. Finland has the longest odds to win the tournament at +600, but it’ll still be nice for Teravainen to play alongside some of the best skaters in the world in “meaningful” games for the first time this year.
Over the past few days, things appeared to be trending in the wrong direction for Bedard as more and more experts left him off their projected rosters for Team Canada. On Wednesday, they were proven right – he wasn’t able to crack the roster.
It’s an interesting fate for the 19-year-old – it’s probably the first time he’s ever been left off of any sort of hockey team and there’s no question he’s one of the most recognizable Canadian players in the league. But on the other hand, he’s just 19. There’s a pretty good chance he’ll be on the Olympic team in 2026, so it’s far from the end of the world, even though Bedard will certainly use it as motivation.
It was also disappointing for the Blackhawks to see that Alex Vlasic was left off the list for Team USA. It’s a crowded room for them on the defensive end, but I stand by the argument I made yesterday that Team USA needs Vlasic on their roster. In a tournament featuring the best scorers in the world, responsible defense will be at a premium. Vlasic may have only scored his first goal of the season Wednesday night, but there will be plenty of scoring to go around. He would’ve been a great choice for the Face-Off, but now he’ll have to try to make the Olympic team instead.
