5 Utah HC players who could play in ‘4 Nations Face-Off’

The first-ever “4 Nations Face-Off” is coming up. It will see the NHL’s best players from Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland go head-to-head for their respective countries.
It doesn’t start until February, but the rosters will be revealed on Wednesday. In anticipation of the rosters, here are a few Utah Hockey Club players who could very likely get the call to go.
A lot of analysts have left Clayton Keller off their projected rosters, usually citing his size. But that has never stopped Keller before and it shouldn’t stop him now.
Keller is tied for the sixth-most points by an American forward this year. He has been held off the score sheet just eight times this year and he has grown into a leadership role as the captain of a new team.
No, he’s not the guy that will make a big hit or drop the gloves, but Team USA has enough gritty players. He consistently puts the puck in the back of the net.
In last year’s playoffs, Kevin Stenlund proved to the world that he’s elite at what he does.
You might look at his stat line and scoff at the mere four points he’s scored in his 25 games this year, but it’s not his job to score. Stenlund is essentially an extra defenseman who plays center.
Stenlund has the fourth-most time on ice on the penalty kill among all NHL forwards. He has won 58.6% of his faceoffs. He’s big and he can push guys off the puck.
He played every regular season and playoff game for the Florida Panthers last year, where those were his exact jobs. If he’s that valuable to a Stanley Cup-winning team, he will certainly get a look for Team Sweden.
“It would be a big honor,” Stenlund said of the possibility that he could be selected to represent his country.
He said that if he were selected, he would be glad to play with Panthers defenseman Gustav Forsling again.
It’s been a little more than a month since Olli Määttä got to Utah, and he’s done nothing but impress the entire time.
He plays with a poise that only comes from experience. He never seems to succumb to pressure from forecheckers, his first passes are excellent and he plays in every defensive situation.
Määttä has been Utah HC’s third-best defenseman since he arrived, and I don’t think that’s even a bold statement.
Matias Maccelli has the tools to become one of the best playmakers in the world: He sees the ice the way few others do, which allows him to make passes that few others would. He just needs to gain some consistency.
He ended a seven-game point drought on Monday. Considering the fact that the maximum number of games each Four Nations team will play is four, Team Finland can’t afford for anyone to have cold streaks.
For that reason, a lot of analysts have left Maccelli off their lists — but that doesn’t mean Finland’s management team sees it the same way.
Although Juuso Välimäki occasionally watches Utah HC games from the press box as a healthy scratch, defense is easily Team Finland’s weakest position. If Välimäki doesn’t get the call to join the team, he will be the best Finnish defenseman left off the roster.
The tricky thing with Välimäki is that there isn’t a specific part of his game that you can point to and say, “That’s why we need him.” Don’t take that the wrong way — he plays in the best league in the world and is an elite athlete — but he doesn’t impact games the way a lot of others do.
The tournament will run from Feb. 12 to Feb. 20 with games in Montreal and Boston. It’s run by the NHL, rather than the IIHF, so it will use the NHL rulebook.
Roster announcements will be made on Wednesday and can be seen on TV. Sweden and Finland will announce theirs at noon MDT, which fans can watch on the NHL Network. For Canada and the U.S., tune into TNT at 4 p.m.