The 4 Nations Faceoff rosters are set to be released on Wednesday, December 4, and there should be a few Vancouver Canucks players named to their respective countries teams.

For starters, Canucks captain Quinn Hughes was already named for Team USA as he was one of the six players selected when teams made their preliminary announcements back in June. However, he is the only Canuck that was pre-selected. Here are the first six chosen for each of the four nations:

F: Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers), Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche), Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins), Brad Marchand (Boston Bruins), Brayden Point (Tampa Bay Lightning)

D: Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche)

F: Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs), Matthew Tkachuk (Florida Panthers), Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights)

D: Adam Fox (New York Rangers), Charlie McAvoy (Boston Bruins) and Hughes.

F: Filip Forsberg (Nashville Predators), William Nylander (Toronto Maple Leafs), Mika Zibanejad (New York Rangers)

D: Victor Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning), Erik Karlsson (Pittsburgh Penguins), Gustav Forsling (Florida Panthers)

F: Aleksander Barkov (Florida Panthers), Mikko Rantanen (Colorado Avalanche), Sebastian Aho (Carolina Hurricanes)

D: Miro Heiskanen (Dallas Stars), Esa Lindell (Dallas Stars)

G: Juuse Saros (Nashville Predators)

Each team will be listing the following 17 players to make the team. Let’s go team by team and project which Canuck might crack their respective country’s team.

We won’t waste your time here talking at length about the last five players; however, with his play as of late, we will highlight DeBrusk. He is very much a long shot and hasn’t been given much consideration, but his play lately is not something to overlook.

Over the past two weeks, DeBrusk ranks third among Canadian forwards in points (nine), trailing just Brandon Hagel (12) and McDavid (10). Now, the Canadian forward group looks to be the most stacked positional group for any team in the entire tournament, so we don’t anticipate DeBrusk to make the team. The Canucks likely won’t have a representative in a Canadian uniform at this 4 Nations Faceoff.

Here is where we see a lot of potential options. Joshua, Sasson, Sherwood, Forbort and Myers won’t draw any speculation. However, Boeser, Garland, Miller and Demko likely will.

It feels unfair for Boeser as if he did not miss those seven games in November, his point totals would be higher, and there would be more tape on him for this Team USA selection committee to watch of him. The Burnsville, Minnesota native is coming off a 40-goal campaign last season, which was the second highest among American forwards, trailing only Auston Matthews. Pegged as just a sniper, Boeser has done a great job over the previous seasons in developing his two-way game and should be highly considered for a spot on this team. Now, there’s a chance he won’t make the team, but we think that it would be a mistake to see him off the roster.

Garland is more of a long shot, but should it be? He’s currently tied with Alex DeBrincat for 11th in points by an American forward (21). The smaller framed shifty forward is solid in his own zone but is elite along the boards and in the corners during the cycle game. A tournament of this calibre with each nation’s top players doesn’t really project to be a hard-nosed battle like the regular NHL, so Garland’s skill set might not be needed for a tournament like this. Despite his point totals this season, we don’t anticipate Garland to make the team.

Even with everything going on surrounding Miller, a recent report from Andy Strickland suggests that the selection committee is not concerned about his availability for this tournament. Taking that into consideration, Miller’s spot on Team USA is all but certain at this point. Before his leave of absence, Miller was sitting at just under a point per game (16 points in 17 games), sitting at 0.94 PPG. This would rank as the sixth-highest American forward, behind Eichel, Jack Hughes, Brady Tkachuk, Kyle Connor and Matthew Boldy, who are all considered lineup locks. We anticipate Miller will make the team and play in a middle-six centre role for Team USA.

Demko is more of a wild card. He has yet to play a game for the Canucks this season, so why would they select Demko? American goaltending is already stacked as it is, with the likes of Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman all fighting for spots on the team, who have all logged 17+ games this season. However, the one thing in Demko’s favour is how he played the last time we saw him. Demko finished last season with a 35-14-2 record, a 2.45 goals against average (GAA) and a .918 S%, with five shutouts. These efforts earned him second place for the Vezina trophy.

Had Demko returned before teams made their selections, and he proved he could perform at the same level, he likely would be on this team. However, that hasn’t happened, and we don’t anticipate Demko making the team.

If Nils Höglander is struggling to hang onto his spot in the Canucks’ lineup, surely the feisty forward won’t be considered for Team Sweden. Brännström has somewhat revitalized his career in Vancouver, but with three defencemen already named to the team, the Canucks defenceman will be competing against Rasmus Dahlin, Rasmus Andersson, Mattias Ekholm, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jonas Brodin and Hampus Lindholm for the remaining few spots. He won’t be a target for Team Sweden.

However, for Pettersson, it was somewhat of a shock that he wasn’t selected as one of the wave of the first six Swedish players selected in June. So his spot on Team Sweden should be considered already locked in. After a slow start to the season – five points through the first 12 games – he’s returned to form lately, recording 16 points over his past 11 games. Despite the slow start, he currently sits sixth in points by a Swedish forward and first by a Swedish centreman this season. It should come as no surprise to see him as the top-line centreman for this Sweden team.

We’ll keep this short and sweet: Räty shouldn’t be selected. He’s just a fresh 22-year-old with 31 games of NHL experience under his belt. While his impressive 56.8% faceoff percentage would be beneficial for any team in a tournament like this, it’s a log jam at centre for the Finns.

Barkov and Aho have already made the team, who will presumably fill out the top two centre positions. Then there are Roope Hintz, Mikael Granlund, Erik Haula, Anton Lundell and Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who are all more experienced centres and have a higher likelihood of making the team.

Kevin Lankinen on the other hand, should be a lineup lock for this Finnish team. Lankinen has the best record out of any Finnish goalie (12-3-2), with a 2.65 GAA and a .907 S%. Now, Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen seems to be locked in for the backup role behind Saros, so Lankinen will be battling out the third and final spot with Joonas Korpisalo. The Bruins goaltender has been good this season, with his own impressive record of 5-2-2 with a 2.45 GAA and a .908 S%. However, given Lankinen has been playing at a high level more frequently this season, we believe the edge will go to Canucks goaltender.

With all things considered, we anticipate only Quinn Hughes, JT Miller, Elias Pettersson and Kevin Lankinen (and potentially Brock Boeser) to be the only players to represent their country for February’s 4 Nations Faceoff.

What do you think, Canucks fans? Which Canucks players are you projecting to represent their country?