The United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland each revealed the first six players that will be part of their rosters for next year's NHL 4 Nations Face-Off on Friday.

The 4 Nations Face-Off is a first-of-its-kind event that will replace the traditional NHL All-Star Game next year. The tourney will occur from Feb. 12 through Feb. 20, 2025, and games will be held in Montreal and Boston.

Many of the NHL's top players have already been ticketed to participate, including Team USA's Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Quinn Hughes, Canada's Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Sidney Crosby, Sweden's Victor Hedman and Finland's Aleksander Barkov.

Of those players, the Florida Panthers' Tkachuk won the Stanley Cup, the Toronto Maple Leafs' Matthews won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league's leading goal scorer this past season, the Vancouver Canucks' Quinn Hughes won the Norris Trophy as the top defenseman, the Colorado Avalanche's MacKinnon won the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP, McDavid won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP despite his Edmonton Oilers losing to the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final, and Barkov was the Selke Trophy winner as the NHL's best two-way forward, while also captaining the Panthers to their first Stanley Cup win.

In many ways, the 4 Nations Face-Off will be a preview of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, which will mark the return of NHL players to the Olympic Games.

NHL players participated in the Olympics from 1998 through 2014, but they were not permitted to do so in 2018 or 2022, which led to a significant downturn in quality and interest.

A deal was struck to bring NHL players back to the Olympics in 2026 and 2030, though, representing the first opportunity for many of the league's best players to compete on that stage for the first time.

In terms of major international competitions outside of the IIHF World Championship and World Junior Championship, the 4 Nations Face-Off will be the first international event involving NHL players since the World Cup of Hockey, which saw Canada beat Team Europe in the final in 2016.

Two of the best Canadian players of the past 20 years in McDavid and Crosby will play together for the first time at the 4 Nations Face-Off, which may also be an Olympic precursor.

Additionally, the United States has seemingly closed the talent gap on Canada since the last time NHL players were in the Olympics, and the 4 Nations Face-Off will be the first true chance to test that theory.

Headlined by the NHL's leading goal scorer in Matthews, the best defenseman in Hughes, a 2024 Stanley Cup champion in Tkachuk and a 2023 Stanley Cup champion in Jack Eichel, the U.S. has a chance to establish itself as the dominant nation in the sport of hockey.

Of course, the rosters for the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland will depend heavily on health since the 4 Nations Face-Off will take place in the midst of the 2024-25 season.