Maple Leafs make exciting announcements regarding Nylander, Matthews

Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the United States unveiled the first 6 players for their respective teams ahead of the Four Nations Face-Off next season, including 2 Maple Leafs.

The NHL 4 Nations Face-Off is set to take place in February of next year with 4 countries which includes Canada, the United States, Sweden, and Finland. It is scheduled between the 12th and the 20th of February, 2025, at the Bell Centre in Montreal and the TD Garden in Boston.

It was announced that the four countries taking part in the tournament would unveil the first 6 players of their respective teams ahead of the NHL Draft. It should come as no surprise that players like Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Aleksander Barkov, and Matthew Tkachuk were named to the preliminary rosters.

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, they are represented by Auston Matthews, named to the United States, and William Nylander, representing his native Sweden.

Canada:

Cale Makar, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Connor McDavid, Brayden Point

United States:

Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes, Charlie McAvoy, Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk

Sweden:

Gustav Forsling, Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, Filip Forsberg, William Nylander, Mika Zibanejad

Finland:

Juuse Saros, Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, Sebastian Aho, Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Rantanen

It's interesting to note that only Finland named a goaltender in Saros, while the United States and Sweden went with a balanced 6 as they each named 3 defensemen and 3 forwards. Canada went forward heavy with just one defenseman.

NHL players haven't been able to represent their nations in a tournament like this since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016.

Excluding the World Juniors, for Matthews this will be just the second time he will be donning the American stripes, while this will be the third time for Nylander, who previously represented Sweden at the World Championships in 2017 and 2019.