At long last, best-on-best international competition is returning to the NHL.While most of the headlines penned from the NHL’s All-Star festivities in Toronto centered around the return of NHL talent to both the 2026 and 2030 Winter Olympics, hockey’s top league is also orchestrating another international tournament to serve as a precursor in 2025.
Over the weekend, the NHL announced the 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-Off — a new international tournament set to take place over a nine-day period from Feb. 12 to 20, 2025.
The tournament will take place in two North American cities, with DailyFaceoff’s Frank Seravalli reporting that Boston and Montreal will be the two venues.
Some of the top stars across the NHL like Connor McDavid (Canada) and Auston Matthews (USA) will be able to represent their respective countries while gearing up for Olympic gold the following winter.
But one of hockey’s top talents in David Pastrnak might need to wait a little longer.
Pastrnak figures to be the headliner for his native Czech Republic during the upcoming 2026 Olympic Games in Italy.
But Pastrnak and several other top players from various European countries will be on the outside looking in at the 4 Nations Face-Off, as only NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States will be able to participate in the tournament.
It’s a tough look for the NHL, especially if Pastrnak is sitting at home during an international event partially set in Boston.
And while the Bruins star winger focused most of his attention on his expected participation in the 2026 Winter Olympics, he did acknowledge his disappointment regarding Czechia’s exclusion from the 4 Nations Face-Off.
“It’s a huge disappointment,” Pastrnak acknowledged on Monday at Warrior Ice Arena. “I don’t know much I can say. Definitely not happy about it. I understand that it’s a quick turnaround. It’s next year. They probably didn’t have much time to make it a bigger tournament.
“But Czech isn’t there. So it’s always a lot of players left out, so I’m not gonna watch the tournament, to be honest. So just happy that the Olympics got accepted. Yeah, [it] definitely stings a little bit.”
While some of the top talents across the NHL like Pastrnak (Czechia) and Leon Draisaitl (Germany) will be omitted from the 2025 event, it might be a pure numbers game in terms of the limited field of participating countries.
Per the NHL, each of the four participating counties will be comprised of 23 NHL players, all who must be under an NHL contract for the 2024-25 season and on an NHL roster as of Dec. 2, 2024.
There are currently only three Czech blueliners currently in the NHL, as noted by Matt Porter of The Boston Globe. Add in the abbreviated schedule for the 4 Nations Face-Off, and any expanded field beyond four teams would likely be unfeasible.
Despite Pastrnak’s disappointment in the upcoming tournament, he joined the long list of NHLers thrilled at the prospect of representing his country in the Olympic Games.
“I’m so pumped,” Pastrnak said. “I was open about it with you guys this whole time. Obviously very frustrating for me, I missed two of them already. So looking forward to — I’ll be 30, I hope I make the team. But I’m super excited and pumped that the deal got done. It is a couple years away from now, but once the news came I definitely was happy.”
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