Five Wild players chosen to play in 4 Nations Face-Off

The Wild will be well-represented at the NHL’s inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off.

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson, center Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin were named to Sweden’s team on Wednesday, while defenseman Brock Faber and winger Matt Boldy cracked the United States roster.

Wild coach John Hynes is an assistant for Team USA, which has President of Hockey Operations Bill Guerin as its general manager.

“I’ve been privileged to be on the national team a few times now, and it’s always such an honor to be on the team,” Gustavsson said. “Sweden’s always producing a lot of good goalies. I knew I had to play my best to be on this roster.”

This is a first-of-its-kind event that will pit NHLers from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States against each other in a seven-game tournament that replaces this season’s All-Star Game.

Bell Centre in Montreal and TD Garden in Boston will host the action, which begins Feb. 12. The championship game is Feb. 20, and each country selected 20 skaters and three goalies to compete.

Gustavsson’s inclusion was a no-brainer.

After backstopping the Wild to a 3-2 overtime win over Vancouver on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center, Gustavsson is 12-4-3 with a league-leading 2.04 goals-against average .929 save percentage. He’s given up two or fewer goals in 14 of his 19 starts, which is also tops in the NHL.

“When he’s called upon to make key saves at key times, he’s able to do that,” Hynes said. “But he’s confident. I think he’s focused, and he’s playing his style of game. I think he’s calm in the net, and he reads plays well.”

What makes Eriksson Ek, who is considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury after getting dinged up on Tuesday night, a smart choice for Sweden is his versatility: Not only does he have five goals and eight assists through 22 games, but Eriksson Ek is an effective defender who can stand in front of the net on the power play and kill penalties.

(The 4 Nations Face-Off will follow NHL rules, with the tournament adhering to a round robin format that will culminate in a final between the top two finishers.)

Brodin is also currently hurt, missing the last four games with an upper-body injury, but he has a long history of being one of the best matchup defensemen in the league.

Before getting sidelined, Brodin chipped in two goals and six assists in 19 games and formed a formidable duo with captain Jared Spurgeon that had rarely been scored on at 5-on-5.

“It’s going to be fun to play with them for the national team, too,” Gustavsson said.

For Team USA, Faber is the youngest on a blue line that also features Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy.

The runner-up for last season’s Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie, Faber is among the stingiest at his position in the NHL and the Maple Grove native has occasionally quarterbacked the Wild power play. Faber has three goals and 10 assists through 25 games while averaging the eighth-most ice time in the NHL at 24 minutes, 51 seconds; the 26:52 he logged vs. the Canucks was his third-highest total of the season.

As for Boldy, he’s had a terrific start to the season that merits him being added alongside the likes of Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Jack Eichel.

Boldy is second on the Wild in goals (11) and points (24) and tied for second in assists (13), and his five game-winners are tied for first in the league.

New York Islanders forward Brock Nelson (Warroad), Tampa Bay winger Jake Guentzel (Woodbury) and Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger (Lakeville) also made Team USA.

All five Wild players have suited up for their respective countries before, with Boldy, Eriksson Ek, Brodin and Gustavsson most recently appearing at the World Championships last May — a tournament that Boldy led in scoring, while Gustavsson went 6-1.

Faber skated in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, and the 4 Nations Face-Off could be considered a tune-up for the 2026 Games since the NHL has announced it will participate after skipping the last two Winter Olympics.

Guerin is also GM of Team USA’s Olympic squad.

“With the players that we have and the team that we can put together comes pressure to win,” Guerin said on the TNT broadcast after Team USA’s roster reveal. “It’s not just something that we hope to do. It’s something that we expect now.”

Former Gophers and Wild forward Erik Haula was chosen for the Finnish team.