USA ‘can compete against any team’ in 4 Nations, says Sullivan

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The USA feels it will hold its own with Canada, Finland and Sweden when the full rosters for the 4 Nations Face-Off are announced on Wednesday.

“As far as the type of team you’re going to see, it’s going to be very talented,” coach Mike Sullivan said Tuesday. “It’s going to be a talented group that I think can compete against any team in any environment. There’s speed. There’s skill. There’s size. There’s toughness. There’s defensive conscience. There’s dynamic offensive players.

“But as I’ve said all along, every team is going to have talent. Talent alone isn’t going to win the tournament, we don’t think, and so I think our challenge is to become a team.”

The United States named forwards Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk and defensemen Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy when each team announced its first six players on June 28.

Each team had to submit the balance of their 23-man roster by Monday.

Finland’s and Sweden’s list will be published at 2 p.m. ET Wednesday during a live show produced by NHL Network and made available globally. ESPN will announce them during the 2 p.m. ET edition of “SportsCenter.”

Canada and the US list will be announced at 6:30 PM ET Wednesday during live pregame shows on Sportsnet and TNT.

The seven-game tournament – ​​the first best-of-best tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto – will be held in Montreal and Boston from the 12th-20th. February.

The U.S. has a chance to win a best-of-the-best tournament for the first time since the 1996 World Cup.

“When you look at the prospect pool, the players that were available to potentially play on this team, it’s maybe one of the deepest groups of players that the United States has ever had, and I think that’s a tribute to the development of the sport. hockey in the United States,” Sullivan said. “There will be players on that list from all over the United States, not just what we would consider the hockey hotbeds of the United States, where hockey is deeply rooted.”

Sullivan credited the NHL expansion, USA Hockey’s American development model and the grassroots initiatives across the United States.

USA Hockey has also operated the USA National Team Development Program in Michigan since 1996. Every player named to the June 28 roster went through the program, and many more alumni are likely to make the roster. Will that give the USA an edge when it tries to play as a team in a short tournament?

“Whether it’s an advantage or not, I think when you look at the core of the best players in the United States, there’s definitely familiarity there,” Sullivan said.

The American talent pool is so deep that general manager Bill Guerin and his staff had to leave stars off the roster. But the tournament is more than two months away and some of those players may still be needed.

“Those are the tough decisions that Billy had to make with the help of the rest of us, and so that would be a better question for Billy than me,” Sullivan said. “But what I will tell you is that this group has discussed how to handle these situations and the importance of being respectful to these players and what they have accomplished in the NHL and their work so far.

“None of us have a crystal ball. We can’t say what’s going to happen between when the roster is named and when the tournament actually takes place. There could be some changes there depending on injuries or things like that. But that would be the next step that our group has already discussed. It’s just a matter of implementing the game plan.”

Sullivan, who won the Stanley Cup as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, has been part of USA Hockey for five decades as a player and coach. It will be the first time he leads the United States in a best-versus-best tournament. He will also coach the United States at the 2026 Olympics in Milan Cortina.

“I’m incredibly honored to coach this team and so look forward to the opportunity to compete with these guys,” he said.