So, it hasn’t been a great day for Lightning fans, but amidst the bad news, there was a little bit of good news. First off, it does look like Julien BriseBois is a lot closer to getting Victor Hedman an extension than he is with Steven Stamkos. The longtime Lightning defender is set to be an unrestricted free agent after next season, but Mr. BriseBois said that he hopes to announce something in the next couple of days.
The good news continued for The Big Swede as the league announced the initial rosters for the 4 Nations Face-Off that will take place next February. The World Cup that isn’t a World Cup will be played in Montreal and Boston from February 12 to February 20 and will feature players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. Earlier today, all four countries announced the first six players on each of their rosters.
Victor Hedman will lead the defense on Team Sweden while Brayden Point will put on the Team Canada sweater for the tournament. Coach Jon Cooper has been tapped to lead the Canadians in the inaugural tournament that will pave the way for both the Olympics and an actual World Cup of Hockey. The rest of the rosters will be announced later this year. Here are the players that were named today.
United States of America
Forward – Auston Matthews
Forward – Jack Eichel
Forward – Matthew Tkachuk
Defenseman – Adam Fox
Defenseman – Quinn Hughes
Defenseman – Charlie McAvoy
Canada
Forward – Brayden Point
Forward – Sidney Crosby
Forward – Nathan MacKinnon
Forward – Connor McDavid
Forward – Brad Marchand
Defenseman – Cale Makar
Finland
Forward – Aleksander Barkov
Forward – Sebastian Aho (Carolina version)
Forward – Miko Rantanen
Defenseman – Miro Heiskanen
Defenseman – Esa Lindell
Goaltender – Juuse Saros
Sweden
Defenseman – Victor Hedman
Defenseman – Erik Karlsson
Defenseman – Gustav Forsling
Forward – Filip Forsberg
Forward – William Nylander
Forward – Mika Zibanejad
