Over the past few days, Bill Guerin’s entire management team converged on Minnesota in the middle of a snowstorm to make final decisions on the men’s hockey roster for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy.
When asked how big the proceedings were or if everyone was roughly on the same pace, the U.S. general manager and U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer deadpanned, “Well, … we are now.”
After a hearty laugh, Guerin, who is also general manager of the Minnesota Wild, said Athletics very seriously, “The reason I have the guys that I have on my team is because even though they agree with me, they challenge me. We all think in different ways. We all have different ideas. And it’s like, ‘Hey, I agree with you, but let’s think about it this way or let’s think about this.’ And that helps in making the decision. And I appreciated each of their opinions. And they’ve pushed me to where we think we’re in a good position heading into the Olympics.
Guerin’s management team includes USA Hockey general manager Pat Kelleher and assistant general manager John Vanbiesbrouck, as well as Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman, New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald, Wild assistant general manager Chris Kelleher and Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito. Rangers coach Mike Sullivan, who will coach the Americans in Italy, also had his say.
The deadline to submit teams is Wednesday. And while Hockey Canada will call players in the morning and announce its team at noon ET, Team USA will be announced on NBC’s “Today” show Friday morning.
Guerin will begin calling players who made the team and those who didn’t make the team Wednesday morning.
The Americans already have several players expected to make the Olympic team, guys like expected captain Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, Zach Werenski and Jaccob Slavin. But with so much hockey remaining to be played in January and early February before NHL players head to Italy, Guerin knows the players named Friday won’t necessarily all be healthy in five weeks. So much of his conversations Wednesday with the players who weren’t part of the original roster of 14 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders will be to boost their morale and inform them that they could be the first out of the bullpen in the event of an injury.
“I know I’m going to give some people disappointing news, but I have to be honest with them and communicate the truth and reality to them,” Guerin said. “There’s a lot of hockey between now and then, we just don’t know what’s going to happen and we’re just ‘ready’. That’s all I can really tell them, and I will.
When you have so many great players to choose from, there will be snubs and plenty of second-guessing.
Very good players and even star scorers are expected to be left off the roster instead of checking forwards who might be better suited to the more defensive, shorthanded bottom-six roles. The Americans loved their play during the 4 Nations showdown last February, where they lost in the championship in overtime to Connor McDavid and the Canadians.
And in Guerin’s mind, if you can’t check, you can’t compete in the Olympics. It’s about building a “team,” he says, not an “all-star team,” and when he sees the level of performance of players like McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar this season on their NHL teams, it reaffirms to him the need to check and try to slow down opposing stars.
“I’m a big believer in building a team,” Guerin said. “It’s not like we’re going to take a group of fourth lines. You know what I mean? They’re all very good players. But you need players to play a role. You need your best players to be able to check. Just look at the 4 Nations. Matthews, Eichel, MacKinnon, McDavid, (Sidney) Crosby, the Tkachuks, they were all checking. It wasn’t like that big pond hockey open. They all played like that and me but I don’t think it will be much different. I really don’t think so.
When Guerin took the job leading the U.S. leadership team for the Four Nations and the 2026 Olympics, he knew there would be tough decisions and criticism after the fact.
He therefore expects critics to challenge certain American decisions.
“Look, I make my decisions and I move forward,” Guérin said. “I don’t care what people say on social media. I don’t care what the experts say. All I care about is the team. I have a job to do, I’m doing it the best I can. If I’m right, I’m right. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, and we think we’ve put together the best team possible to help us win a gold medal.”
That said, we don’t expect many changes to the 4 Nations Face-Off roster.
On December 23, we published an article explaining the debates we believed were being had among the US staff.
A week later, here is our projected Team USA roster:
Attackers
Already named on the list (4): Likely captain Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Brady Tkachuk and Matthew Tkachuk
Rest of our projected attackers (10): Matt Boldy, Kyle Connor, Jake Guentzel, Jack Hughes, Clayton Keller, Dylan Larkin, JT Miller, Brock Nelson, Tage Thompson and Vincent Trocheck
Subtraction of the 4 Nations: Chris Kreider
Not on 4 Nations: Keller, Thompson
Notable omissions: Kreider, Jason Robertson, Cole Caufield, Patrick Kane, Alex Tuch, Alex DeBrincat, Matthew Knies, Logan Cooley, Troy Terry, Cutter Gauthier
If that’s true, as electrifying as Caufield may be, the biggest scrutiny will come from leaving Robertson on the sidelines. Boldy leads all American-born NHL players with 25 goals, but Robertson is second with 23 and leads all NHL players with 20 in 23 games since November 11.
I’m just going to go ahead and leave this here. pic.twitter.com/CahQfXtVw2
– Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) December 29, 2025
Defenders
Already named on the list (2): Quinn Hughes, Charlie McAvoy
Rest of our projected defenders (6): Brock Faber, Noah Hanifin, Seth Jones, Jake Sanderson, Jaccob Slavin, Zach Werenski
Subtraction of the 4 Nations: Adam Fox
Not on 4 Nations: Jones
Notable omissions: Fox, Lane Hutson, John Carlson, Jackson LaCombe, Alex Vlasic
We think Jones earned a spot, so if that’s the case, it was probably Hanifin versus Fox for the eighth spot on defense, even though the brass love LaCombe and both Hutson and Carlson had good seasons. Adding Fox to the team makes sense because it would give the U.S. a fourth right-handed defender for insurance, but there’s no doubt that management was concerned about pace of play being an issue for Fox at the 4 Nations. And even though he was in the midst of a better season before getting injured on Nov. 29, we just think the lasting impression of this tournament and specifically McDavid’s game-winning goal is ingrained in the minds of key decision-makers. So we’ll see who lands the spot, but obviously with Sullivan, Drury and assistant coach David Quinn all part of the Rangers, it’s a touchy subject if Fox doesn’t make it.
Goalkeepers
Our projected goalies (3): Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger, Jeremy Swayman
Subtraction of the 4 Nations: None
Notable omissions: Thatcher Demko, Spencer Knight, Dustin Wolf
We believe that none of the three 4 Nations goalkeepers have provided a reason for making changes.
