Jake Sanderson answered the call to suit up for his country at the last minute in February at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
On Friday, that decision paid dividends.
The Ottawa Senators top defenceman was among 23 players named to the United States roster for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, which will be held in Milano-Cortina, Italy, next month.
The 23-year-old Sanderson will join Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk and his brother, Matthew, of the Florida Panthers, on the roster.
Sanderson was sitting in a hotel in Miami last February, getting ready to head further south for the break during the 4 Nations Face-Off, when he got the call from American general manager Bill Guerin to suit up at the tourney.
That decision and Sanderson’s continued elevation to becoming one of the National Hockey League’s elite defencemen paved the way for Team USA staff to bring him to Italy.
“It’s such an honour,” Sanderson said at the Canadian Tire Centre. “You look at the list, for all the countries, it’s pretty impressive. To have the opportunity to go a second time, I’m just forever grateful.”
Sanderson has eight goals and 28 points in 39 games this season. He has put himself in the discussion to get votes for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenceman this season.
“What he showed is that he belongs and he’s an emerging elite defenceman in the league,” Team USA coach Mike Sullivan said on a conference call with reporters on Friday. “We had extensive conversations in putting together the 4 Nations roster and Jake was at the forefront of those with respect to the defence core.
“When we added him to the 4 Nations team, I thought his performance just provided evidence that the conversations we had about him were correct.”
No, he’s not going to beat out the likes of Colorado’s Cale Makar and Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes when the final votes are tallied, but Sanderson is averaging more than 25 minutes a night with the Senators.
“When you watch his overall game, he’s an elite defenseman,” Sullivan said. “He’s mobile, good size, can play on a power play, a good defender, can kill penalties, drives offence with his ability to make outlet passes and join the rush. He defends very well with his mobility and his stick.
“And so I thought his performance in the 4 Nations was exceptional, but his body of work in the NHL and the way he continues to progress, and the impact that he has with his team in Ottawa, speaks for itself.”
Sanderson was one of eight defencemen selected along with Brock Faber, Noah Hanifin, Seth Jones, Charlie McAvoy, Jaccob Slavin, Zach Werenski, and Hughes. This will be Sanderson’s second Olympics.
He played in Beijing in 2022 when the Americans took younger players due to the impact of COVID-19.
“He came in and performed extremely well,” Guerin said. “He was in all the conversations leading up to the tournament and, then when he got there, he really impressed everybody.
“His play just speaks for itself. He is emerging each and every day as one of the top defencemen in the league.”
Finnish defenceman Nikolas Matinpalo, who was also an injury replacement at the 4 Nations, was named to his county’s roster on Friday morning as well. He has established himself as a regular NHL player in the past year and was informed by Finnish coach Antti Pennanen on Boxing Day.
Though Matinpalo has been scratched from time to time, that’s mostly because the Senators have seven defencemen. He is reliable and did the difficult job of playing on his off side when the Senators ran into injury issues.
“Definitely, it’s a dream of mine to get home and put that national team jersey on,” Matinpalo said. “Four years ago, I was playing Finnish League, so I don’t, I wasn’t really thinking about the Olympics.
“This summer, one of my goals was to make this team, and I’m happy that I made the team.”
Centre Tim Stutzle already has been named to Team Germany and centre Lars Eller is on Denmark’s roster.
Not everyone in the Ottawa room would have been pleased with the roster announcements that were made on Friday.
Centre Shane Pinto, invited to the orientation camp by Team USA in the summer, was passed over. He was in a battle for a spot with Vincent Trochek of the New York Rangers, who was selected instead.
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Pinto missed nearly a month with a lower-body ailment he suffered on Dec. 4 against the Rangers. He will remain on the radar screen because there is a risk of injury with the NHL’s compressed schedule.
Goaltender Linus Ullmark, who has been granted a leave of absence for personal reasons by the Senators, wasn’t one of the three goalies selected by Team Sweden. He has struggled this season.
Swedish coach Sam Hallam told Aftonbladet that Ullmark’s leave of absence had no bearing on the decision to leave him off the Olympic team.
“It was very sad to hear that Linus needed to take a break from hockey. I hope he comes back and feels well as soon as possible. But we had made our decision about the goalies before that news came,” Hallam told the newspaper.