Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad already knew that they’d be representing the Rangers at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February, but on Wednesday, they found out that Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and Kaapo Kakko will join them in the event, too.
Kreider and Trocheck were named to Team USA’s roster, while Kakko, propelled by a strong start to the season, was named to Finland’s group during the separate announcements.
Fox also will skate for Team USA, while Zibanejad will be a part of Sweden’s roster. Alexis Lafreniere — a bubble forward whose strong start to the 2024-25 campaign has stalled across the last 17 games — wasn’t among the 13 forwards named to Canada’s roster.
“It’s a huge honor to be able to put the United States crest on your shirt,” Trocheck said after the Rangers practiced Wednesday in the hours leading up to the announcement. “And representing your country is something that everybody dreams of doing.”
The 4 Nations Face-Off will take the place of the annual All-Star Game in February, with Team USA, Sweden, Canada and Finland meeting in a round-robin format before the top two teams advance to a championship game on Feb. 20 to cap the event that’ll take place in Montreal and Boston.
Trocheck’s previous international experience included the 2016 World Cup of Hockey while skating for Team North America, and he called it “one of the most fun events of hockey.”
He didn’t have any inkling about the final roster decisions, at least as of Wednesday afternoon, but when asked if he had tried to persuade Fox about making the roster, Trocheck, who recorded a career-best 77 points last year and has collected 12 this season, joked and said, “I don’t think Fox has any pull, so no, I haven’t been lobbying myself.”
Kreider, with 10 goals for the Rangers this year, has represented Team USA at events dating back to the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship, while Kakko (four goals, nine assists on the Rangers’ strong third line) and Zibanejad (five goals, 13 assists) both have experience playing for Finland and Sweden, respectively, too.
Kakko scored the game-winning goal for Finland in the gold medal game of the 2019 World Junior Hockey Championship.
And now, the five Rangers players — with the number saying “a lot about the New York Rangers organization” and their current team, Trocheck said — will all collide in the nine-day event.
“I’ve never been playing against them,” Kakko said Tuesday afternoon, before the rosters were announced. “Always [on] the same team. So maybe a little weird also, you know.”
When asked about Igor Shesterkin’s recent seven-game stretch, when the star goaltender has gone 2-5 with a .903 save percentage, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said, “I think we’re all in the same boat here, right?”
Read the expert take on the Blueshirts
Sign up for Larry Brooks’ Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.
Thank you
“There’s things that we’ve done well,” Laviolette continued. “There’s things that we haven’t done well enough. Our team, our group has to do things at a better level, a higher level in order to be successful. He’s a fantastic goalie. He’s one of the best in the world. We also believe our team that had some sort of success last year is not where it is.
“And so everybody’s gotta do a little bit more. Everybody’s gotta give a little bit more. Everybody’s gotta play a little bit better in order for us to get out of this.”
Forwards Artemi Panarin (maintenance) and Brett Berard (upper body) didn’t practice Wednesday, but both skated earlier in the day.
