Bill Guerin couldn’t have been any clearer that he was planning on taking receipts as to which bubble players accepted and declined invitations to play in the IIHF World Championship this year.
Back in March, about a month after being named USA Hockey’s general manager for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Olympics, Guerin told The Athletic in a sitdown that he thought it had become too routine for Americans to say “no” to worlds after their NHL seasons ended.
“It’s important for guys to go,” Guerin said. “Hey look, there’s some guys that are going to be a lock for both teams. But there are going to be guys that are on the bubble. If they haven’t played in the playoffs or meaningful games in a long time — or, ever — I want to see how they perform.
“So, in that respect, I think the world championships are extremely important.”
GO DEEPER
Bill Guerin’s message for U.S. Olympic, 4 Nations hopefuls: Don’t blow off the world championships
It wasn’t difficult to determine players Guerin may have been referring to: Zach Werenski, Johnny Gaudreau, Seth Jones, Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch, Clayton Keller and even Guerin’s own Minnesota Wild winger Matt Boldy.
Some of those players didn’t make the trip overseas, but of those who did, none may have helped their cause more than Boldy and Gaudreau.
Boldy was leading the tournament with 14 points in eight games when the U.S. was eliminated 1-0 in the quarterfinal by host Czechia on Thursday, and Gaudreau had 11 points, becoming the United States’ all-time World Championship leading scorer with 43 points.
Guerin’s day job is being Boldy’s GM in Minnesota, and he hasn’t minced words the past few years about the lack of “FU in his game” during his first two NHL postseasons, however much skill he has. Boldy has just one goal and three assists in 12 playoff games for the Wild and often looked like he wanted to out-fancy his competition rather than getting to the dirty areas needed to score in playoff hockey.
That’s not what Guerin’s seeing overseas.
“He’s been unbelievable,” Guerin said in an interview before Thursday’s quarterfinal loss. “He’s been really, really good. It’s not just the points, it’s the way he’s playing, too. He’s been playing the game the right way, but I think he’s really enjoying this.”
Guerin wasn’t the United States’ GM for the World Championship but did go to Czechia to scout with his 4 Nations Face-off and Olympic team head coach, Mike Sullivan.
Boldy played on a line with Gaudreau and Brock Nelson during the tournament.
“He’s just been very direct in his play, and he’s been making good choices, good decisions with the puck at critical times,” Guerin said. “It’s not all been about the offense. It’s been having a complete game and that’s what he’s played.”
Gaudreau — a.k.a. “Johnny Hockey” — is a well-decorated USA player, so it’s not like Guerin doesn’t know his pedigree. But with a vast talent pool and Gaudreau hasn’t exactly performed at the highest level recently — falling from 115 points in his last Calgary Flames season to 74 and 60 in his two seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets — it’s important for Guerin to see if he can still do it at the international level.
“He’s just a point machine,” Guerin said. “He’s skating well. He’s moving the puck. He and Boldy seem to have some chemistry on the power play together. Yeah … Johnny’s played well.”
Also playing well for Team USA is Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, the son of Guerin’s longtime USA Hockey linemate Keith Tkachuk. He probably wasn’t a bubble player in the first place — the chance to see him and older brother Matthew together will be enticing — but he certainly cemented his spot by amassing 13 points and a team-leading seven goals in eight games at worlds.
“Brady’s played really well, and he’s the leader of the team,” Guerin said. “He’s the heartbeat of the team, and he’s delivering on all fronts.”
Other potential bubble players for the next two tournaments that impressed Guerin were Cole Caufield and Zegras.
“They look good,” Guerin said. “Cole had a couple goals (in a group stage win over Latvia). He’s been kind of snake bit, but the opportunities have been there. Trevor’s still figuring it out. I think he’s just trying to figure out how to blend his game with what we’re asking him to do on the team level, but he’s been working hard at it.
“What’s nice, too, is that we’ve got some of the young kids here, like (Gavin) Brindley, (Ryan) Leonard and Will Smith. Even though they don’t get tons of ice, they’re around the NHLers. I know they want to play a ton, they want to compete, but I just feel like it’s a good thing that we’ve got some of these younger guys here so they could see how it all operates.”
Guerin, at least before the quarterfinal loss, was pleased with what he saw from the team as a whole, though many of the players likely won’t make the next two rosters.
“A lot of guys have done exactly what we’ve asked of them, and, hey, first part of it is just being here and second part of it is that they’re taking this seriously,” Guerin said. “To see how some of these guys operate has been really good for me and eye-opening. It’s been a very, very positive experience for me to be able to see how these guys go to work.”
In mid-June, USA Hockey, Canada, Sweden and Finland will name their first six roster players for the 4 Nations Face-off. Those will be the easy decisions.
The more excruciating ones will come later.
“They’re going to be difficult decisions,” Guerin said. “I know there’s going to be people disappointed. Hey, look, that’s just the nature of the business and that’s the unfortunate part of it. But yeah, that’s the job. We want to win. And you know what? It’s hard. We can’t guarantee anything, but we’ve got the player pool that should be able to compete with anybody in the world, and the decisions that we have to make are going to be difficult because of how many good players we have.”
Photo of Johnny Gaudreau and Brady Tkachuk: Andrzej Iwanczuk / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
