Whitefish’s Jake Sanderson Joins Team USA for NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament
Team USA’s first game is at 6 p.m. on Feb. 13 against Finland
By Mike Kordenbrock
News broke earlier this week that Ottawa Senators’ defenseman Jake Sanderson, who is originally from Whitefish, has been added to the Team USA roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament.
A new, NHL-sponsored competition, the 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament is billed by the league as a “best-on-best” tournament featuring players from the NHL representing the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden. It’s being held in lieu of the NHL All-Star Game this year.
Team USA’s first game is Thursday night against Finland at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Puck drop is at 6 p.m. MST, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN+. The tournament kicked off Wednesday with a match between Canada and Sweden that ended in a 4-3 overtime win for the Canadian side.
Team USA announced on Feb. 9 that Sanderson was added to the team to replace defenseman and Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes. The Athletic reports that Hughes would have been the team’s no. 1 defenseman, but chose to bow out of representing Team USA as he continues to try and recover from an oblique injury.
With the NHL currently on a break, Sanderson canceled a tropical vacation to join the team, according to The Athletic, which also reports that he was close to making the initial roster before team leadership instead chose Noah Hanifin of the Vegas Golden Knights. At 22 years old, Sanderson joins a Team USA roster that is the youngest in the tournament with an average age of 28, according to ESPN.
In its own announcement of Sanderson’s elevation to Team USA, the Senators note that Sanderson’s play in February, in which he tallied six points in five games, “may be what helped cement his spot on the Team USA roster.”
This won’t be Sanderson’s first time representing the U.S. in an international competition. As noted by USA Hockey, he played in the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, played for Team USA in the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Men’s World Championship, and played for the U.S. National Junior Team at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship at which they won a gold medal.
Drafted fifth overall in 2020 out of the University of North Dakota by Ottawa as the first defenseman off the board, Sanderson has played 211 career games for the Senators, during which he has tallied 19 goals and 86 assists. Sanderson’s addition to Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off Tournament means he will be joining Ottawa teammate Brady Tkachuk. The two will also be facing a teammate, defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo, who, like Sanderson, was a late add to the Finnish team.