USA:
Moving onto many people's favourites to win the tournament, we have the Americans. In contrast to Canada, Team USA has a whopping zero players who have played for them in a best-on-best international tournament (it's been a while...) .
But this 2025 American roster features a strong presence of leadership and lots players deserving of a letter.
My pick for the captain is none other than Quinn Hughes, captain of the Vancouver Canucks and arguably the best defenseman in the NHL.
In terms of alternates, I'm going to take Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who very well could've earned the "C". The other two players dawning an "A" will be Matthew Tkachuk and Jack Eichel. Two players who have won Cups in the past two years and two of the top American players in the NHL.
Picking captains for Team USA was much harder than for Team Canada, as this is a younger USA team with less experience than the other squads in this tournament.
With that being said, my honourable mentions are Charlie McAvoy, Dylan Larkin, Chris Kreider, and Zach Werenski, and my final predictions being Quinn Hughes (C), Auston Matthews (A), Matthew Tkachuk (A), and Jack Eichel (A).
Now let's look at the European countries taking part in this event, Sweden and Finland.