Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews will captain Team USA for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off, the NHL announced Thursday.
With an impressive list of leaders to choose from, including four NHL captains and 10 NHL alternate captains, the Florida Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk and Boston Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy were chosen as assistants for the international tournament, which is being staged by the NHL and NHLPA.
Matthews, 27, led the NHL with 69 goals last season and won the Hart Trophy in 2021-22, when he scored 106 points in 73 games. The 2016 No. 1 draft pick also won the Calder Trophy in 2017 and has scored 388 goals and 687 points in 598 career games. That’s more goals and points than any American player in the NHL since he debuted in 2016. He was named Maple Leafs captain in August and is one goal from tying Darryl Sittler for second in team history despite having played 246 fewer games than Sittler.
Matthews, who has been dealing with an upper-body injury for much of the season, met with United States general manager Bill Guerin on Wednesday morning in Toronto in advance of the Maple Leafs’ game against the Minnesota Wild. Matthews told Guerin that unless he has a setback before the tournament, he is good to go.
The Arizona native had a relatively slow start this season with 11 goals in his first 24 games before missing nine games in November and another six from before Christmas until after New Year’s.
He has scored in eight of 12 games since returning and has 20 goals in 36 games this season.
This will be the first time Matthews has represented the United States since the 2016 World Championships. He also played in the 2015 and 2016 World Junior Championship (winning a bronze medal in 2016) and won gold at the 2014 and 2015 Under-18 World Championships.
The 4 Nations Face-Off will run from Feb. 12 to Feb. 20 in Montreal and Boston. The U.S. faces Finland on Feb. 13 and Canada on Feb. 15 at the Bell Centre, then Sweden on Feb. 17 at TD Garden. The championship game is Feb. 20 at TD Garden.
Why these picks?
The full U.S. hockey ops group and coaching staff voted on captains, and while Tkachuk got a few votes coming off a 2024 Stanley Cup championship, all tallied Matthews was the landslide selection. Matthews is used to dealing with media attention as captain in Toronto and is widely considered the United States’ best player.
There were a dozen good choices to be assistant captain, but the U.S. brass felt Tkachuk and McAvoy will do whatever it takes to win and be emotional leaders who drag teammates into the fight.
Tkachuk — the son of Guerin’s longtime Team USA linemate, Keith Tkachuk — goes to the hard areas and can pile up points. McAvoy can contribute offensively, defensively and physically.
Tkachuk, 27, is a two-time 100-point scorer and has hit 40 goals twice. He is a point-per-game player this season with 47 points in 47 games. He was teammates with Matthews on the 2016 World Junior Championship team and at the 2015 Under-18 World Championships.
McAvoy, 27, represented Team USA at the 2017 and 2018 World Championships, as well as the 2016 and 2017 World Junior Championship.
In 499 games, McAvoy ranks eighth in Bruins history among defensemen with 297 points and a plus-146 rating and 10th with 58 goals.
Notable omissions
The U.S. roster includes four NHL captains (Matthews, Quinn Hughes, Dylan Larkin and Brady Tkachuk) and 10 NHL alternate captains (McAvoy, Matthew Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, Adam Fox, Jack Hughes, Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller, Brock Nelson, Jaccob Slavin and Zach Werenski).
If the United States opted to go with three assistant captains, as Finland and Sweden did, Eichel likely would have gotten the third A. He’s become a two-way leader for the Vegas Golden Knights, and that was a big part of them winning the Stanley Cup in 2023.
More captain picks
(Photo: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
