The United States’ roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off has been revealed.

Team USA’s management group, which consists of GM Bill Guerin, assistant GMs Chris Drury, Tom Fitzgerald and Bill Zito, and director of player personnel Chris Kelleher, announced Wednesday that forwards Jack Hughes, Matt Boldy, Brady Tkachuk, Kyle Connor, Jake Guentzel, Chris Kreider, J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, Dylan Larkin and Brock Nelson are joining the team’s roster for the international best-on-best event in February, as well as defensemen Jaccob Slavin, Zach Werenski, Brock Faber and Noah Hanifin.

Forwards Jack Eichel, Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and defensemen Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox and Charlie McAvoy were the first six players added to the roster, unveiled in June.

The Americans’ goaltending trio will be reigning Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman.

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan is assuming the same duties for Team USA, joined by assistants John Hynes, John Tortorella and David Quinn.

The management and coaching staffs have been meeting virtually and in person since the summer to discuss the roster. Asked what it’s like to be part of such a collection of characters, Sullivan said, “There are a lot of laughs, I’ll tell you that. There’s a lot of laughs. And nobody’s funnier than Billy G. He just has an uncanny way to get everybody laughing … at some of the most inopportune times.

“It’s a fun a group to be associated with because nobody takes themselves too seriously. We get very serious about the business at hand, but the whole group likes to have a lot of fun. And everybody understands that this endeavor is way bigger than any one of us. All the egos are checked at the door. We just want to do the right thing and work hard to try to do our best to be the most competitive group we can to set us up for success.”

The 4 Nations Face-Off will run Feb. 12 to 20 in Montreal and Boston.

Full roster

(Note: Highlighted players had already been named to the roster.)

Snubs

Cole Caufield leads all American NHLers with 16 goals, yet despite the tournament starting in his home arena and having earned management’s respect at the World Championship, the flashy scorer was left off the roster. Same with Tage Thompson, the 6-foot-6 center who has scored 13 goals this season.

These were tough choices, but the U.S. management group felt that Caufield would have to conform to being a fourth-liner and that other players would be better suited for that role, in addition to killing penalties. In essence, he was too much like Boldy and Jack Hughes.

As for Thompson, it’s a similar rationale. Matthews, Eichel, who could be a Hart Trophy contender, and Hughes, who has been exceptional of late, are simply higher on the center depth chart, and management thinks other forwards are more versatile. Fair or not, management also wants battle-tested players, and the Sabres have been a perennial playoff outsider during Thompson’s six years there.

If a center has to bow out before the tournament, he’s likely first out of the bullpen.

Other snubs up front include future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, Jason Robertson, Clayton Keller and Brock Boeser. On the back end, the most glaring are John Carlson, Neal Pionk, who is having a fabulous season, and Jake Sanderson.

Sanderson, 22, was close to making the team and could very well be an Olympian in a year’s time. — Michael Russo

Surprises

There was a lot of debate around Brock Nelson, Vincent Trocheck and Chris Kreider, and all three ended up on the roster because of the different roles they could play.

It may not be fair to call Nelson a surprise. He may be from the outside, but the U.S. management group and coaching staff adore the Islanders forward, considering him a chameleon who can play anywhere — up the lineup, down the lineup, taking big draws, wing or center, and killing penalties. That flexibility was too appealing to leave off.

Kreider and Trocheck have not had great years for a New York Rangers team that is spiraling out of control, but in a short tournament, the staff feels they’d be suited for fourth-line and penalty-kill roles.

Boldy played himself onto the team as point-per-game player for the NHL-leading Minnesota Wild, as did Zach Werenski, who may be playing better than any of the U.S. defensemen right now, and Noah Hanifin. — Russo

Expectations

Plain and simple, the expectation is to win the tournament as a precursor to an Olympic gold medal in Milan in 2026.

The U.S. is elite up the middle, led by Matthews, the best goal scorer in the game, and Eichel, who may be the team’s best matchup center.

The Americans also have tons of goal-scoring on the wing with the Tkachuk brothers, Connor, Guentzel and Boldy, plus a well-balanced blue line with elite power-play guys Fox and Quinn Hughes, as well as two-way, elite-skating defensemen like McAvoy and Faber. And they have the best goalie trio in the tournament.

What Guerin will be looking for is buy-in, and so far, so good.

On Thanksgiving, Fitzgerald called his Devils player, Jack Hughes, and cousin, Brady Tkachuk, to tell them they made the team. Guerin called everybody else — excluding the six named in June.

“Pure excitement from every single one of them,” Guerin said. “It was awesome. Just the excitement, the appreciation to be part of this team. Every guy said, ‘Whatever you need, whatever it takes, I’ll do anything, play anywhere, play with anybody.’” — Russo

Required reading

Other rosters

(Photo of Brock Faber and Matt Boldy: David Berding / Getty Images)