Building the USA’s Best Team for the 2023 World Cup of Hockey | News, results, highlights, stats and rumours

Rich Graessle/NHLI via Getty Images

The success of this spring’s World Baseball Classic has reignited the thirst for the best international men’s hockey tournament.

We haven’t seen a World Cup of Hockey since 2016, while NHL players haven’t participated in the Winter Olympics since the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia. So it’s been a while since we’ve seen something like this happen.

Just for fun, let’s pretend the World Cup of Hockey is coming this year and what the USA team roster might look like.

This might be the deepest talent the Americans have had in years, if not ever, and it’s loaded with stars at forward and goal, a pair of Norris Trophy-caliber defensemen leading the blue line and a trio of excellent goaltenders. to support them all.

Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images

First row: Matthew Tkachuk – Auston Matthews – Alex DeBrincat

Second row: Jason Robertson – Jack Hughes – Kyle Connor

Third row: Brady Tkachuk – Tage Thompson – Jake Guentzel

Fourth row: Johnny Gaudreau – Jack Eichel – Clayton Keller

Extras: JT Miller, Joe Pavelski

This group would be the strength of the roster by far, and would probably be the best overall ranked group outside of all of Canada’s lineups.

The US would be especially strong in the middle with Auston Matthews, Jack Hughes, Tage Thompson and Jack Eichel going four deep.

Matthews is an easy answer as a top center because he’s one of the league’s best scorers and offensive players when he’s 100 percent healthy. Behind him, Jack Hughes has quickly become a superstar for the New Jersey Devils, while Tage Thompson is a player who combines an almost unparalleled combination of impressive size and sublime scoring ability.

On the left side, the Tkachuk brothers Matthew and Brady are easy choices for the top three line spots. Matthew is the perfect combination of skill, production, physical play and that slight edge that makes him so absolutely infuriating to play. Brady is just a slightly smaller version, but still a sensational player in his own right. He is now a 30-goal winger and has scored a goal this season.

Things thin out a bit on the right side, where Alex DeBrincat is a strong choice for top-end duties. We are also going to play Kyle Connor and Jake Guentzel in their offside position to add more scoring to the lineup. Connor isn’t scoring at the rate he was a year ago, when he hit the 47-goal mark, but he’s as solid a 30-goal scorer as there is in the league. He has averaged 38 goals per 82 games since the start of the 2017-18 season.

Guentzel is known for riding shotgun alongside Sidney Crosby for most of his career, but he is an excellent player in his own right regardless of his center​​​​. He deserves a spot on this list.

Clayton Keller might be the most surprising name on the list, but he’s been a hidden gem in Arizona the past couple of years. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, he has 64 goals, 79 assists and 143 total points in 141 regular season games played. That’s a 37-goal, 83-point pace in 82 games without the luxury of having a legitimate top-line center to play alongside. Put him next to playmakers like Johnny Gaudreau and Jack Eichel and he could really shine.

JT Miller and Joe Pavelski also bring a lot of flexibility as additional options who can play up and down the lineup, down the middle or on the wing when needed.

Sarah Stier/Getty Images

First pair: Jacob Slavin – Adam Fox

Second Pair: Quinn Hughes – Charlie McAvoy

Third Pair: Zach Werenski – John Marino

Extras: Mattias Samuelsson, K’Andre Miller

This might be the weak link in this list, but it’s still very good. Especially when it comes to top defensemen on the right side, where Adam Fox and Charlie McAvoy are as good as they get in the NHL.

Fox already has one Norris Trophy on his resume, and it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where he wins another at some point in his career. He plays in all situations, brings a lot of attack from the back end and plays on the power play. A top pairing of Fox and Slavin would be a formidable top pairing that could log massive minutes against any team’s top line.

McAvoy may not have the same sting as Fox, but he is one of the best defensive players in the league and would be a great addition to Quinn Hughes on the second pairing. Hughes gets hot at times with his play defensively, but he’s a lot better than he’s given credit for being (he’s far from a liability) and is as productive as any defenseman in the league.

The defense’s top four have been dropped a bit in the second half, when the USA’s list may be revealed a little.

Zach Werenski is a very good and productive player when healthy, while John Marino is really starting to reach his full potential with the New Jersey Devils. Honestly, you could probably plug any of Werenski, Marino, Mattias Samuelsson and K’Andre Miller into a third pairing and have it produce similar results. They are all very good players, although not All Star level players.

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

No. 1. Connor Hellebuyck

No. 2. Jake Oettinger

No. 3. Jeremy Swayman

This is another strength for a hypothetical USA team and would give them a chance almost every night.

Connor Hellebuyck has played most of his career playing behind a subpar defense, subjecting him to one of the heaviest workloads in the league each year. He faces a lot of shots, he plays tons of minutes, and he’s still consistently among the most productive goaltenders in the league.

Of the 62 goaltenders who have played in at least 100 games since the start of the 2017-18 season (Hellebuyck’s first year as a full-time starter) his .917 all-situation save percentage ranks ninth in the NHL during that time. He also has a Vezina Trophy on his resume and two other top-four finishes (including the runner-up vote in 2017-18).

He is a worthy starter for this team.

Behind him, the USA could have two rising star goalkeepers in the league, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman. Neither has Hellebuyck’s record in games played or experience, but both have had sensational starts to their careers.

Both are playing in their third year in the NHL and already look like top NHL goaltenders.

Oettinger really burst onto the scene in the first round of the playoffs a year ago when he almost single-handedly stole the first-round series for the Dallas Stars and posted a whopping .954 save percentage in seven games against the Calgary Flames. No one should ever expect him to sustain this kind of play long-term, but he’s been a key part of the Stars’ rise to the top of the Western Conference.

Swayman is one half of changing the game for Boston along with Linus Ullmark. He’s only played 83 regular season games in the NHL, but his .920 save percentage in that span puts him among the league’s elite.

If any of those three were to start a game for the US, they would give the team a great opportunity no matter what else happens with the roster around them.