Florida Panthers Have Most Players in Four Nations Tournament, And for Good Reason

The defending Stanley Cup champions have the most players representing them in the NHL’s Four Nations Face-Off tournament with eight.

When the announcements for rosters at the Four Nations Face-Off were all said and done, the Florida Panthers were the team with the most players announced to rosters.

Florida lead the pack with eight players, while the Vegas Golden Knights have seven players and the Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado Avalanche New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild each have five representatives.

There is one thing that sticks out from that stat: Winning matters.

That much was evident in the inclusion of Sam Bennett to Team Canada.

Sure, Bennett is off to the hottest offensive start to his career — scoring 13 goals and 24 points in 25 games — but there is a bigger reason why Canada ended up picking him for their roster.

The 28-year-old forward has made his presence known as a player who can help set a winning player. A player who helped set the identity of heavy forechecking and physicality for a Stanley Cup-winning team in Florida, while finding any possible way to get under the opponent’s skin.

The Canadians have a clear vision there, with Brad Marchand, Mark Stone and Travis Konecny in the running to play on Bennett’s wing and form one of the most infuriating lines to play against in that tournament.

There are some choices that are a bit more obvious — the three previously announced players (Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Gustav Forsling) are bonafide superstars and Sam Reinhart got his just due after scoring more goals than anyone else in the past two seasons, but it’s clear the Panthers have earned that status.

Niko Mikkola, Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen were all shoo-ins for a Finland team which admittedly lacks depth for the same reason. They are winning players who are some of the most talented in their country. All three of them will likely play a big role — and some penalty kill time — for Finland.

Florida is also well-represented by its staff, with Bill Zito and Teddy Richards (USA), Patric Hornqvist and Myles Fee (Sweden), and Tuomo Ruutu (Finland) all serving some kind of role in the tournament.

The craziest part is, the Panthers still had some players left over who could have gotten a look for these rosters, but did not quite do so.

Carter Verhaeghe understandably missed the cut for Team Canada despite scoring 30 goals in each of the past two seasons and scoring 41 in 2023-24. But the Canadians have more than enough top-end scoring with the likes of Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby, so they took Bennett instead.

Aaron Ekblad also could have gotten a look after playing heavy minutes of shutdown defense for the Panthers, but the Canadians opted for the questionable likes of Colton Parayko and Travis Sanheim instead.

Even then, the Panthers are still going to be the most represented team when NHL players take the ice for international hockey for the first time since in 2016, and there is good reason for it.

Zito built a talented Panthers team that knows what it takes to win.

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