Konecny, Sanheim and Ristolainen make up the Four Nations squad, Flyers will be well represented

Now it’s official – the Philadelphia Flyers will have three player representatives at the Four Nations tournament in February.

On Wednesday afternoon, Team Finland announced that defender Rasmus Ristolainen had been added to their final squad. That was to be expected given Ristolainen’s strong play and Finland’s relative lack of depth at the back. But the inclusion of Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny ​​​​was far from certain given Team Canada’s enviable strength in both attack and defense.

Nevertheless, both players made it. The Travii will actually be unleashed on the entire ice hockey world in February.

The Four Nations Face-Off is an NHL-run tournament that takes place February 12-20 in Boston and Montreal and includes all of Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. It will be a round-robin tournament with the two best-performing nations advancing to the winner-take-all final.

It is also the first true best-on-best international tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey (won by Canada), as NHL players were not allowed to compete in the Olympics in 2018 and 2022. The annual World Championships are technically considered best-on-best, but because they take place at the same time as the NHL playoffs, many of the best players in the world are unable to participate.

However, in the Four Nations Tournament, all four teams will essentially be NHL All-Star teams from their respective nations, with the only downside for hockey fans being the non-participation of Team Russia (due to their country’s invasion of Ukraine) and Czech Republic.

Neither Konecny ​​nor Sanheim were able to make the Canadian team, and both were widely assumed to be outsiders looking inward at the start of the 2024-25 season. But they’ve earned their spots through stellar starts – Konecny ​​​​has 30 points in 25 games and Sanheim is aiming for career highs in every points category, plus he’s taking on the biggest workload of his NHL career.

It was enough to convince the Canadian braintrust, who snapped up both of them.

In addition to the three players, Flyers head coach John Tortorella will also be attending the tournament as an assistant coach for Team USA, supporting his longtime friend (and former assistant coach) Mike Sullivan.