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NHL fans everywhere are excited for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off in February. The event will pit some of the league's best players from four of the world's best hockey nations against each other in an epic contest. Unfortunately for Team Canada, young superstar Connor Bedard was not selected to represent his home country.
Team Canada general manager Don Sweeney defended his position on Thursday. He noted that there's no rush to get the 19-year-old involved just yet.
“Going through the second time around the league now, [so to] speak, in your second year, there are some challenges associated with that,” Sweeney said Thursday. “He’s working through that right now.”
Sweeney believes that Bedard still needs to gain some invaluable experience in the NHL that he can bring to future international games for Canada.
“He’s working through that situation where he gets all the attention possible from the best players he’s playing against each and every night. So I think he’s living and breathing it right now, and it’s only going to help him build his resume.”
The 4 Nations Face-Off takes places on February 12th-20th in both Montreal and Boston. NHL players from the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland will compete in the event. Each team will play each other in a round-robin format. The top-two teams will advance to a championship game that will decide the winner of The 4 Nations Face-Off.
Connor Bedard responds to Team Canada snub
Connor Bedard took the news that he did not make Team Canada in stride.
“You kind of sleep in the bed you make,” Bedard told TNT on Wednesday after the rosters were announced. “And I obviously haven’t been too happy with the start of the year. You can kind of use this as a sort of motivation and keep going, keep working hard, keep trying to get better. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Team Canada's roster is stacked with talent. It is headlined by superstar players like Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Sidney Crosby. They should do just fine without Bedard this year.
“He is a terrific young player,” Sweeney said about Bedard. “And when we went through the process as a management group of building the best team to compete in February with certainly an eye towards what the next wave of future great players is going to look like, we’re excited on both sides of the ledger.”
“Connor certainly falls in that category,” he concluded. “We know the special qualities he has.”
Connor Bedard fans can continue to follow the young superstar with the Blackhawks.
