MANALAPAN, Florida -- Doug Armstrong and Hockey Canada have already started scouting for the 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics, but there is no guarantee the rosters will be the same.
Armstrong, the St. Louis Blues general manager, is Canada's general manager for the 2026 Olympics and in charge of appointing management groups that will lead the national team at events prior to the Games in Italy, including the 4 Nations Face-Off, which will take place from Feb. 12-20, 2025, and will also include the United States, Finland and Sweden, and the 2024 and 2025 IIHF World Championships.
The 2026 Olympics will take place from Feb. 6-22. The dates and schedule for the men's ice hockey competition in Milan have not been set.
"What we're going to do is name a management staff for [the 4 Nations Face-Off], a general manager and he'll get a support staff," Armstrong said Wednesday at the NHL general managers meetings. "It will be evaluating the playoffs, the start of next season, picking the best players. Obviously, there's an eye toward getting to 2026. Every team wants to win on their own merits and that event will be the most important for that group. Then we'll take the information we gain from that event and push it forward."
Armstrong said he is not committing to having the same personnel in management, support and coaching for both the 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Olympics.
"We're not saying it's not going to happen either," he said. "We'll view that like we view the players in the 4 Nations, make sure there is synergy, and we'll go from there. They're not combined."
Armstrong already named Rick Nash the GM for Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, which will be played in Czechia from May 10-26.
Nash previously was the assistant GM at the 2022 IIHF World Championship, where Canada won silver. He's in his third season as director of player development with the Columbus Blue Jackets after previously spending two seasons as their special assistant to the general manager.
Nash played in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Olympics, winning gold in 2010 and 2014 with Canada. He played in four World Championships.
The No. 1 pick by the Blue Jackets in the 2002 NHL Draft, he played 1,060 regular-season games during 15 NHL seasons (2002-18) with the Blue Jackets, New York Rangers and Boston Bruins.
"I think his experience playing in international events, his experience as a player, working with John Davidson and Jarmo Kekalainen and wanting to make a second career in hockey is important," Armstrong said. "I've talked to him a couple times. He's excited. He wants to get to work. He wants to evaluate players. He wants to get a coaching staff. He wants to get all those things in play. I think it's a great opportunity for freshly retired players to get back into the game in a big role."
Armstrong said the evaluation process for the 2026 Olympic team has started, but it's different from previous years he's been Canada's GM at the Olympics (2010 and 2014) because there hasn't been anything resembling a best-on-best tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
"When you look at the past events you had World Cups or national events, Olympics, to sort of refresh your memory on how player has played, but we haven't really had anything international since 2016 so there will be a whole new group of players experience this for the first time," Armstrong said. "That's going to be the interesting part. It is a long way away and we have a couple of events before and the main things are the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the season next year to evaluate players. But the process has started."
Armstrong said his goal is to pick "winning players" who bring speed, skill and size to the team.
"The attributes that make winning teams in the NHL usually transfer to winning teams internationally," Armstrong said. "If you can have that combination, you've got the trifecta."
Armstrong has one absolute certainty in his mind as of today.
"Yeah, I watch Sidney Crosby play right now and I want him on the team," Armstrong said. "He's still a [heck] of a player. I don't really want to go out and create problems and with Sid, there is no problem to create right now with how dominant he is in our league."
