It’s been almost a decade since the NHL has had a best-on-best international tournament. In the meantime, the annual International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championships have mostly consisted of minor leaguers and collegiate/overseas players, making it largely underwhelming.
With the upcoming 2025 Four Nations Face-Off and 2026 Olympics, this year’s edition of the World Championships is slated to be the most competitive in a long time. It makes sense: Players who plan to play in any of the upcoming tournaments will want to be in good graces with their fellow countrymen.
This year’s tournament begins on May 10. After waiting many years, the waiting time shouldn’t feel too long for fans who hope to watch some elite international competition.
When The Hockey Writers spoke to three-time Stanley Cup Champion Ken Daneyko about the Worlds, he said, “It was a long time ago I was on those World Championship teams. You’re always proud and excited to play for your country for sure…I’m all for it. The guys are so skilled today and so many great players in our game that when you see them up against each other…it’s always an exciting time for hockey fans.”
A recent report confirmed that 11 NHLers will participate – nine on Team USA and two for Canada. Keep in mind this is just the first wave. Many more will join in the coming days as the regular season ends. Even more will join as mid-tournament reinforcements if their NHL teams are bounced from the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Here is everyone so far:
F – Connor Bedard (CHI, Canada)
Bedard has lived up to the hype of a first-overall pick. At 18, he’s posted 59 points in 64 games – one of the best totals by someone of that age in recent memory. He did it without much talent around him, leading the Chicago Blackhawks in scoring by seven points despite missing 14 games to injury. It’ll be his first Worlds but the last time he suited up for Canada, he scored 23 points in seven games at the World Juniors. Canada sending Bedard proves that, if healthy, not many players are off-limits.
G – Jordan Binnington (STL, Canada)
Binnington, a 2019 Stanley Cup Champion, will also be taking part in Worlds for the first time. He’ll likely be Team Canada’s number one netminder – not just for this tournament but potentially the Four Nations and Olympics as well. His excellent .911 save percentage (SV%) helped keep the Blues afloat many times, and his 12.1 goals saved above expected (GSAx) ranks seventh of 31 goalies who played 40+ games.
F – Brady Tkachuk (OTT, USA)
The addition of Tkachuk to the US roster should make you go, “Wow, this tournament will be so much better this year.” He’s one of the premier players in the sport, notching 30+ goals in three straight seasons after being named captain of the Ottawa Senators. His 35 goals lead the team, and his 70 points are tied with Tim Stützle at the top. Furthermore, Tkachuk plays with an edge to his game that will be crucial to an American squad looking for their first gold medal in 64 years. In fact, they haven’t even earned silver since then – they earned bronze in 2015, 2018, and 2021. That’s largely because they haven’t typically been sending their top-flight talent. That seems to be changing. It should be entertaining to see how Tkachuk fares under IIHF rules that don’t allow fighting.
F – Cole Caufield (MTL, USA)
Caufield is just another example of a bonafide NHLer who would typically not participate in recent editions of this tournament. He never has in the past. His 25 goals and 62 points are second on the Montreal Canadiens behind captain Nick Suzuki. A pure sniper, he doesn’t need a lot of room to score. That was evident when he scored 14 goals in seven games for the US squad at the 2019 U18 Worlds and then won gold in 2021 at the World Juniors. Caufield’s teenage years with USA Hockey signaled a new era of immensely skilled and talented American-born players. They’ve begun to take over the NHL and will get a chance to do so on a premier international level as well.
F – Trevor Zegras (ANA, USA)
Zegras is one of Caufield’s close friends. It should be pretty cool to see them both get a chance to dominate the tournament together after doing so at the World Juniors. Zegras put up 18 points in only seven games at the World Juniors en route to Tournament MVP and a gold medal in 2021. He then joined the NHL and put up back-to-back 60+ point seasons. But the 2023-24 campaign has been injury-riddled. He’s only played in 28 games and notched 12 points, but five of them have come in his last five games after returning from a broken ankle.
F – Tage Thompson (BUF, USA)
Thompson has been among the elites of the NHL for about three seasons, putting up 38 goals and 68 points two seasons ago, and followed it up with a superb 47 goals and 94 points last season. While his production has taken a bit of a dip this season, a wrist injury that sidelined him for a while could be to blame. Still, he has 29 goals and 56 points in 69 games – but he’s seemed to be fully healthy as of late. He has eight goals and 14 points in his last 10 contests.
He has played at Worlds before. In 2018, he was one of those obscure minor-leaguers who get invited just because the US has to fill out a roster. (He had nine goals in 46 AHL games before that.) Now, he can rejoin the tournament as a fully developed, elite winger and play alongside some of the best.
F – Johnny Gaudreau (CBJ, USA)
While Gaudreau has yet to repeat his absurd 115-point season from 2021-22 with the Calgary Flames, he’s still one of the NHL’s elite players. He had 74 points last season and 59 this season as a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Unlike most, he’ll be returning for his fifth World Championship. He made his first appearance in 2014 after dominating at Boston College – and returned for four of the next five tournaments while he was still young.
Related: NHL Needs to Take a Page from IIHF on Goalie Interference
In total, he has notched 32 points in 32 tournament games. That puts him at fourth all-time in post-1980 US Worlds scoring, behind Patrick Kane, Dylan Larkin, and Paul Stastny. He’s a threat to create offense at any time, and he can also serve as a veteran who has been through the motions of this tournament.
D – Luke Hughes (NJD, USA)
When Dougie Hamilton went down with a season-ending injury, rookie Luke Hughes was pushed into an extremely tough role for the New Jersey Devils. After being forced to handle almost 22 minutes a night, he produced exceptional results. His 47 points (and counting) broke the Devils’ record for points by a rookie defenseman. While there were some expected growing pains, he’s shown recent improvement in both his even-strength play and power play results. The Devils’ power play has scored four times in the last two games – all with Hughes as quarterback. There’s a very solid chance he’ll finish second or third in Calder voting, and he has Worlds experience: he had four points in 10 games for Team USA as an 18-year-old following his freshman season at Michigan.
F – Shane Pinto (OTT, USA)
Pinto was suspended for the first half of the season for violating the NHL’s gambling policy. He then signed a one-year deal with the Senators and has produced a solid 26 points in 38 games. It’s not lighting the world on fire, but it’s certainly respectable. Had he played the full season, he’d be on pace for ~17-18 goals. Considering he’ll likely play a bottom-six role for Team USA, that’s extremely commendable. For comparison, in last year’s tournament, the US had four players in their top six alone who either played in the AHL or put up worse numbers than Pinto. So that gives some perspective towards how different this year’s go-around should be. Pinto has never played at Worlds but had seven points in five games at the 2020 World Juniors.
D – Zach Werenski (CBJ, USA)
Werenski is only 26 years old and has already amassed 311 NHL points between the regular season and playoffs. Not too shabby for a defenseman, huh? Just entering his prime, he has a career-high 53 points in 68 games for Columbus this season. He played just two games at Worlds as a reinforcement in 2019 after the Blue Jackets were eliminated from the playoffs. After finding themselves at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division, this will be a good chance for Werenski to channel that and lead the Americans to success. Last year’s US defensive corps had a combined 39 points in the NHL season. Between Hughes and Werenski alone, there are 100.
F – Luke Kunin (SJS, USA)
Like Pinto, Kunin will play a smaller role for Team USA as he has just 18 points in 74 games for the San Jose Sharks this season. He’s a seven-year NHL veteran who plays with a bit of an edge and can handle some defensive responsibility. He was the captain of the US World Junior team that won gold in 2017, and he played three World Championship games in 2018. While he likely won’t be lighting up the scoresheet, the addition of Kunin shows the intention of having a much more NHL-centric lineup, as opposed to NCAA and AHL players.
More NHLers Coming Soon
A recent report suggested that Sidney Crosby will likely join Team Canada if the Pittsburgh Penguins miss out on the playoffs. He has 89 points in 79 games, including 20 in his last 10. A red-hot Crosby would be thrilling to watch for any fans of best-on-best international play.
Devils’ play-by-play announcer Bill Spaulding said on last night’s broadcast that Timo Meier (Switzerland) is “…going to see how he’s doing physically over the next week or two…he loves doing it. So, if he’s feeling healthy, he’s going to want to do it, especially with the Olympics just a couple of years away. That’s something all the Swiss National Team players have circled on their calendar. They’re looking at that as a real measuring stick of how hockey has grown in their country.”
As mentioned, as teams fall out of the playoffs, any healthy stars will likely make the trip to Czechia. Soak it in and enjoy it: competitive international hockey with NHL participation appears to finally have made its return.