These 4 NHL Stars Got The Biggest Glow-Ups From The 4 Nations Face-Off

For the players who participated, the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off proved to be a massive stage.

On Saturday, the league announced that 16.1 million viewers across North America tuned in for the championship game, when Team Canada defeated Team USA 3-2 in overtime.

The 9.3 million viewers in the U.S. marked the largest hockey audience ever on ESPN, and the largest non-NFL audience ever on ESPN+.

That’s a lot of eyeballs.

Here are the four players who saw their personal stock rise the most thanks to their standout performances at the event.

Jordan Binnington – Canada / St. Louis Blues

As a rookie, Jordan Binnington made 32 saves in Game 7 at TD Garden as the St. Louis Blues beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 to claim the 2019 Stanley Cup.

After months of concern about the state of Canada’s goaltending, it felt fitting that he came through for his team again on Thursday, at the site of his greatest career triumph.

Tending the twine from wire-to-wire for the Canadians, Binnington gave up 10 goals in four games, finishing with a .907 save percentage and 2.37 goals-against average. Most importantly, he made six stops in 8:18 of sudden-death overtime in the championship game before Connor McDavid’s tournament-winner beat Connor Hellebuyck.

Binnington’s perfect performance under pressure silenced his doubters — and put him in the pole position to be Canada’s starter for next year’s Winter Olympics in Italy.

Brady Tkachuk – USA / Ottawa Senators

Matthew Tkachuk has already played his heart out in big-game situations, reaching the Stanley Cup Final with the Florida Panthers in each of the last two years and winning in Game 7 in 2024.

Younger brother and U.S. teammate Brady Tkachuk is waiting for that same opportunity. His Ottawa Senators last made the playoffs in 2017, just over a year before Tkachuk made his NHL debut. Now 25 and in his fourth season as the team’s captain, he’s eager to bring the same 200-foot intensity to the NHL post-season as he did at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Though he was limited to just 1:55 of ice time in the Americans’ 2-1 loss to Sweden on Feb. 17 after slamming hard into the goal post during first-period action, Tkachuk was the Americans’ most impactful player in the tournament, from start to finish. Skating most often with his brother and center Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights, his three goals in three games tied Jake Guentzel of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the most by a U.S. player. And his role in the fight-filled opening of the Americans’ 3-1 win over Canada in Montreal on Feb. 15 helped deliver a message that the U.S. team was not intimidated by the daunting stage.

As regular-season action resumes on Saturday, Tkachuk’s Senators sit in the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but there’s virtually no breathing room in a tight race. If the Sens can snap their playoff drought, look for Tkachuk to deliver more top-level intensity in the post-season.

Jaccob Slavin – USA / Carolina Hurricanes

While Brady Tkachuk’s playing style demands fans’ attention, defenseman Jaccob Slavin is the polar opposite.

He’s a steady shut-down defenseman who does his most important work in the trenches, but often flies under the radar. He’s an agreeable personality but generally not a quote machine. And spending his entire NHL career in a relatively low-profile media market with the Carolina Hurricanes also helps preserve his enigma status.

The 30-year-old is enough of a favorite with the members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association that he’s a two-time winner of Lady Byng Trophy as the NHL’s most gentlemanly player. But he has never finished higher than fifth in Norris Trophy voting, because the best defenseman is typically expected to have eye-popping offensive stats as well as taking care of his own end of the ice.

At the 4 Nations Face-Off, the U.S. team was the stingiest defensively, giving up just seven goals in four games. Slavin was pointless in the tournament but his steady pairing with Brock Faber of the Minnesota Wild was effective and reliable during an event when every team was rolling out dangerous scorers on every line.

He’ll be a key cog again for the U.S. Olympic team.

Mikael Granlund – Finland / Dallas Stars

The Canada-U.S. rivalry sucked up most of the oxygen at the 4 Nations Face-Off. But Mikael Granlund came oh-so-close to triggering an upset win over Canada that would have launched Finland into the tournament final.

After Canada opened up a comfortable 4-0 lead in the teams’ round-robin finale, Granlund scored twice in just 23 seconds to get the score to 4-3 with 1:17 left to play in regulation. With a minute to go, Granlund had the puck on his stick again at center ice before Sidney Crosby stripped him with a crushing bodycheck, then whirled and fired into the empty net to clinch the win for the Canadians.

Though the underdog Finns fell just short, Granlund has always been a big-game player for his country, which has consistently outperformed expectations at the international level. The 32-year-old has two golds and a silver from the world championship, and a bronze medal from the 2014 Winter Olympics, the last time NHL players participated at the Games.

Granlund will get another opportunity next year in Italy. This spring, he’ll have a chance to chase a Stanley Cup with one of the NHL’s top contenders after he was acquired by the Dallas Stars in a trade on Feb. 1.