Jack Eichel says Team USA has 'a lot to prove' at 4 Nations Face-Off

The rosters are set and the excitement is building for February’s 4 Nations Face-Off as hockey’s top countries assemble their best and prepare to hit the ice with a gold medal — and the bragging rights that come with it — on the line.

According to Jack Eichel, the tournament also brings a long-awaited opportunity for Team USA to make a statement.

“I think there’s a lot to prove for us as USA Hockey,” said the Vegas Golden Knights centreman, who was officially named to the roster during Wednesday’s unveiling and spoke with reporters during a virtual availability on Thursday.

Eichel is among a large group of the NHL’s top superstars who have yet to wear their nation's colours in a true best-on-best tournament. He was named to Team North America when the NHL last paused for international play, co-starring on the young stars squad alongside fellow Americans Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk as well as Canadian counterparts Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. And while he twice appeared in games for Team USA at the world championship, held each spring, the 4 Nations Face-Off ups the intensity in terms of both level of competition and stakes.

The Americans haven’t won an international best-on-best event involving NHL players since the 1996 World Cup. Eichel believes the skaters in stars and stripes will be ready to change that in February.

“With the way the U.S. National Development Program has been producing players lately, and where we feel we are as a country, you look at the talent pool in the last however many years in the NHL, and I think for a while it was Canada on a pedestal by themselves,” Eichel said. “I think for us, we feel like we’ve closed that gap — and I think this is a great opportunity for us to prove that.”

For both players and fans, February’s event will be the first real measuring stick at the senior pro level since 2014 — the last time NHL players competed in the Olympic Games.

Over the past decade, the best glimpse we’ve had in terms of taking stock of the top men’s hockey nations has been the world junior championship, held annually during the Christmas holidays and into the new year. While it’ll take a while for any country to catch Canada in the gold medal count — Canada’s claimed the top prize 20 times since the tournament officially debuted in 1977 — there’s plenty of momentum riding with Team USA. The Americans have won the under-20 tournament six times, their first victory coming in 2004, and there’s been a clear uptick in talent (and, as a result, expectations) in and around USA Hockey’s development program throughout the last decade.

Evidence of that can be seen not just in world junior results, including last year’s Team USA victory, but in the heavy presence of players coming out of the USNTDP early in recent NHL drafts.

“Everyone can say what they want now and look at rosters and compare rosters,” said Eichel of the 4 Nations roster reveals, “but at the end of the day, everything will be figured out on the ice and we’ll have our opportunity to prove where we think we’re at. I think there’s a lot to prove for us.”

The timing of this tournament couldn’t be better, considering what’s on the hockey horizon. NHL players will once again be on Olympic hockey rosters for the 2026 Games in Italy after missing the last two tournaments.

In the five Olympic Games featuring NHL players, Canada has won gold three times — including back-to-back golden victories in 2010 and 2014. Team USA twice claimed silver (2002, 2010).

No member of Team USA’s 4 Nations Face-Off brings Olympic experience, but a few Canadians do. Sidney Crosby famously scored the golden goal at the 2010 Olympics over Team USA and captained Canada to gold in 2014, too, as well as at the World Cup in 2016. Alex Pietrangelo manned the blue line for Canada’s 2014 Olympic squad and at the World Cup in 2016. Brad Marchand won gold alongside both Crosby and Pietrangelo at the World Cup.

“Guys on Canada have played on the big stage and won before, in terms of internationally — at least a few of them,” Eichel said. “For some of us, I think this is a great opportunity for us to do that.”