With the Minnesota Wild on the road, Bill Guerin went on a scouting tour last week heading into the ever-important Dec. 31 roster decisions he and his Team USA staff will have to make as the United States attempts to win its third men’s hockey gold medal and first since 1980 at the Winter Olympics this February in Italy.
In seven days from Monday to Sunday, Guerin saw seven games — Anaheim at St. Louis, Boston at Detroit, Winnipeg at Montreal, Colorado at Islanders, Vegas at New Jersey, Colorado at Rangers and Vegas at Rangers.
The Americans are already well down the road toward choosing their roster. While there’s not expected to be many changes from the 4 Nations Face-Off, World Championships gold-medal hero Tage Thompson, Clayton Keller, Jason Robertson, Cole Caufield, Lane Hutson, Seth Jones and others continue to make a strong case. The Americans held a Zoom with their full group Friday to talk about the roster and potential candidates and plan to meet one more time in person after Christmas.
Beyond the fact that Guerin (USA GM), assistant GM Chris Kelleher (director of player personnel), head coach John Hynes (assistant coach), head athletic trainer John Worley (athletic trainer), assistant athletic trainer and massage therapist Travis Green (athletic trainer) and orthopedic surgeon Joel Boyd (team physician) will be in Milan, the Wild have nine players who could be Olympic shoo-ins for the United States, Sweden, Germany, Czechia and Slovakia, and two others who could be candidates.
Imagine if Russia was eligible (Kirill Kaprizov), or if Norway (Mats Zuccarello) or Austria (Marco Rossi) qualified.
At least they’ll get rest during the Olympic break. Asked if he’s worried about the number of his players who could be in Milan when it comes to injury risk or fatigue upon their return for the NHL’s stretch drive, Guerin scoffed in an almost comical way.
“I don’t worry about that stuff,” he said. “This is a chance of a lifetime for these guys and for me. I just don’t worry about that stuff. So much time is just spent worrying. Like, let’s just go over and play and we’ll see what happens. If something happens, then we’ll figure it out.”
To Guerin’s point, the trade deadline is March 6, so worst comes to worst he’ll have time to react to an injury.
The shoo-ins
Matt Boldy, United States: Tied for 11th in the NHL with 16 goals and tied for 19th with 31 points. Had three points in four games at the 4 Nations and won gold at the 2021 World Junior championships with five goals and seven points in seven games. At the 2024 World Championships for the Hynes-coached Americans, Boldy scored six goals and a tournament-leading 14 points in eight games.
Brock Faber, United States: This should be Faber’s second Olympics after representing the United States in 2022 when the NHL backed out late due to the pandemic. After a slow start to the season with no points and a minus-5 in his first nine games, Faber has scored six goals and 15 points and is plus-2 in his past 20 games. He established himself on a shutdown pair at the 4 Nations with Jaccob Slavin. He won gold at the 2021 World Juniors (five assists in seven games).
Joel Eriksson Ek, Sweden: One of the premier checking centers in the NHL and best net-front guys, Eriksson Ek has been a terrific shutdown center this season. He’s also an international staple for Sweden, playing in the 4 Nations, scoring six goals and nine points at the 2017 World Juniors and helping Sweden win gold and bronze at the 2017 and 2024 worlds, respectively.
Jonas Brodin, Sweden: Like Faber, he had a slow start to his season after offseason shoulder surgery but has been playing his best hockey for the last month. He was so good for the Swedes at the 4 Nations, so it’d be surprising if he’s not selected. The Wild lifer has represented Sweden several times, winning gold two times and bronze three times. His gold medals were at the 2012 World Juniors in Calgary six months after being drafted in the first round by Minnesota and at the 2017 worlds.
Filip Gustavsson, Sweden: The way Jacob Markström and Linus Ullmark have played this season, Gustavsson could end up being the No. 1 — or Jesper Wallstedt (more on that below). Sweden will likely go with whichever goalie is playing best at the time when determining whom to lean on. In his past nine starts, Gustavsson is 5-2-2 with a 2.17 goals-against average and .920 save percentage. Gustavsson played two games at the 4 Nations and backstopped Sweden to a bronze at the 2024 worlds (6-1 with a 2.13 goals-against average) and silver at the 2018 World Juniors (4-1, 1.81 goals-against average and .924 save percentage).
Nico Sturm, Germany: The two-time Stanley Cup champion is back in the Wild lineup after back surgery at the end of training camp. Of the shoo-ins, he’s the only player to have already been selected. In June, Sturm was selected as one of Germany’s first six along with Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle, Moritz Seider, Lukas Reichel and Philipp Grubauer. He took part in the 2023 and 2024 worlds, leading Germany to a shocking silver medal in 2023 with six goals in eight games.
David Spacek, Czechia: Has made strides playing for Iowa this season, but his international pedigree is well-documented with Radko Gudas saying publicly two years ago that he’s surprised the Wild have yet to give him a chance. The son of Jaroslav Spacek — a 1998 Olympic gold medalist and three-time winner of the gold at the World Championships — Spacek helped lead the Czechs to gold at the 2024 worlds with five assists in 10 games and a silver at the 2023 World Juniors with three goals and eight points in seven games. It wouldn’t be shocking if he quarterbacks the top power play in Milan.
David Jiricek, Czechia: Playing in Iowa largely because the Wild have seven defensemen on the NHL roster, including waiver-risk Daemon Hunt, Jiricek is expected to be chosen for the Czechs. Remember, Gudas and Filip Hronek are the only Czech defensemen in the NHL. The 2022 No. 6 pick was a man amongst boys in helping lead the Czechs to a silver at the 2023 World Juniors (seven points in seven games). He was also on the Czechs’ bronze-medal winning worlds team in 2022.
Samuel Hlavaj, Slovakia: Expected to be the Slovaks’ starter at the Olympics, and they better pray he’s better than he has been for Iowa this season. He is 3-5-2 with a 3.56 goals-against average and .871 save percentage. But one big reason the Wild were drawn to signing him was his impressive outings on the international stage, especially in the three straight solid worlds performances and helping Slovakia go 3-0 in 2024 to qualify for the Olympics.
The candidates
Jesper Wallstedt, Sweden: No chance Sweden ever initially considered Wallstedt an option considering how much he struggled last season in Iowa. But despite his hot streak this season and getting the Wild points in his first 10 starts (including four shutouts), Wallstedt says he hasn’t heard a word from Team Sweden and hasn’t been in the drug testing protocol. The Athletic, however, has been told Sweden did register Wallstedt last summer. We’ll see where this goes, but Wallstedt expects “body of work” and longevity will rule the roost here and understands if that ends up being the case. He’s been in several international tournaments, including helping Sweden to the bronze at the 2022 World Juniors (3-2, 1.62 goals-against average and .940 save percentage).
Marcus Johansson, Sweden: Tied for fourth on the Wild with seven even-strength points and has 20 points in 29 games largely playing on Minnesota’s shutdown line. He recently hit the 1,000-game milestone and is well-decorated on the international stage, playing in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi (silver medal) and especially elite in the last two World Championships with a combined 10 goals and 20 points in 18 games (two bronzes). Sweden coach Sam Hallam has always talked glowingly about Johansson, and we know coaches love and trust him.
“It would be cool to be part of, it’s special,” Johansson said. “I’ve played in one Olympics and would love to be in another. But I just focus on this year and doing your best every day and that’s all you can do. There’s a lot of good players, so you never know.”
Kiefer Sherwood scored 12 goals in his first 20 games of the season. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
Wild show interest in Vancouver’s Sherwood
As talked about on last week’s “Worst Seats in the House” podcast and reported by The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, the Wild have shown significant interest in pending free agent Kiefer Sherwood, who carries a $1.5 million AAV and makes $1.3 million in salary. The hard-nosed, physical, strong-skating forward is coming off a 19-goal season and scored 12 goals in the first 20 games.
The Canucks have shopped him around the league and originally wanted a good, young prospect. According to league sources, the Wild offered one (it’s unclear who) and the Canucks have since changed gears. Reportedly, they now want a good roster player and have also asked teams for a first-round pick.
While there are rumors they’d be interested in the injured Rossi, we can’t see the Wild trading Rossi in a deal for Sherwood.
Ironically, the Canucks turned down an offer from the Wild for Rossi at the draft that would have involved Aatu Raty (scored two goals and an assist and had one goal overturned against the Wild on Saturday night), the No. 15 pick and goalie Arturs Silovs.
Sherwood, by the way, has no goals in his last nine games and turns 31 later this season. He has yet to play 300 games. Was the beginning of the season simply a hot streak and not the real Sherwood?
In search of secondary scoring
The Wild badly need secondary scoring and are looking heading into the NHL’s holiday roster freeze starting 11:59 p.m. Dec. 19 and lasting until 12:01 a.m. Dec. 27. (As a reminder to the Dallas Stars, teams can’t practice Dec. 24-26; they were fined $100,000 for former coach Pete DeBoer holding an optional skate last Dec. 26 before facing the Wild on Dec. 27.) Guerin was taking note of everybody — not just for USA Hockey — during his recent scouting mission. In fact, Kelleher, who runs the pro scouting department, begins three days of meetings Monday with the Wild scouts.
Vladimir Tarasenko (two goals in 22 games, 7-0 recently without him and 1-2-1 since he has returned to the lineup) has been a complete disappointment. Ryan Hartman, who is very much on the trade block, has scored two goals in 24 games since opening night. Injured Marcus Foligno has no goals in 23 games, the fourth line has provided no offense, Eriksson Ek has scored just four times and Johansson has scored twice in the last 15 games.
Boldy and Kaprizov have scored 33 of the Wild’s 78 goals (42.3 percent). The Wild, who have scored six goals in the past four games (1-2-1), rank 26th in both goals and goals per game (2.69).