Team captains have officially been named for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off and two Edmonton Oilers are set to take a leadership role.
Connor McDavid and Mattias Ekholm will both sport an ‘A’ as assistant captains for Canada and Sweden, respectively, the NHL announced on Thursday.
Wearing the captain’s ‘C’ for the four teams will be Sidney Crosby for Canada, Auston Matthews for the Americans, Victor Hedman with Sweden, and Aleksander Barkov leading Finland.
McDavid previously served as captain for Team North America at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, as well as for Team Canada at the 2018 World Championships. He recorded 17 points en route to the team’s fourth-place finish in what was his last national appearance.
Serving as assistant captain alongside McDavid will be Colorado Avalanche star Cale Makar.
Ekholm has 22 points so far this season and was recently named to the Edmonton Oilers Quarter-Century team alongside McDavid. He last played for Team Sweden at the 2019 World Championships where he also served as assistant captain.
Speaking to media Thursday, the 34-year-old said he’s proud to be named as part of Sweden’s leadership group:
“Obviously, a huge honour. Victor’s a great leader, so kind of a no-brainer for me that he was going to be the captain, and just speaking for myself, I think it’s a tremendous honour to be an assistant captain for your country and I’m gonna do everything possible and everything I can to make the team as good as possible and then hopefully, we can make some noise.”
The blueliner will serve as assistant captain for the Swedes alongside William Nylander and Erik Karlsson.
Also appearing for Edmonton in the tournament is 31-year-old winger Viktor Arvidsson, who will join Ekholm on Team Sweden.
Arvidsson has represented the nation multiple times at the junior level, most notably in the 2013 World Junior Championships, where he had four goals and five points as the group took home silver.
The tournament kicks off February 12th with McDavid facing off against Ekholm and Arvidsson in the opening match, as Canada takes on Sweden at the Bell Centre.
