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29 Photos / Getty Images J A N / F E B 2 0 2 5 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M – Jake Oettinger OTTER'S NET? Oettinger, the star netminder from the Dallas Stars, would be the bona fide No. 1 if he hailed for any other nation. But come February, the Americans will have a tough decision because reigning Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck and the Boston Bruins' Jeremy Swayman were the other two goalies that made the team. Oettinger isn't worried about that yet. He's just honored to make the team. "It's incredible," he said. "Just really happy to be a part of it. It's a dream come true to be among that group of players and to get to represent my country again. Some of my favorite memories of my career was when I was with USA Hockey." Oettinger said watching 'Miracle' made him fall in love with hockey and his peak hockey fandom started by watching World Juniors and the 2010 Olympics and seeing how great Ryan Miller was in that tournament. The Americans forced overtime by a late Zach Parise goal, but Sidney Crosby scored in OT in the gold- medal game. "It's crazy how good the hock- ey's gotten and how great the U.S. players are," said Oettinger. "Just really happy to be a part of it. It's a dream come true to be among that group of players and to get to represent my country again. Some of my favorite memories of my career was when I was with USA Hockey." WILD FLAVOR Faber cannot wait to take part with Boldy. The two were teammates on the gold-medal-winning 2021 world junior team and Faber took part in the 2022 Winter Olympics when collegiate players went to Beijing rather than NHLers due to the COVID -19 pandemic. "Every time you have the privilege to wear the red, white and blue, it's one of the coolest things in the world," Faber said. "Super excited about it," Boldy said. "It never gets old." The two of them hope Gustavsson starts for Sweden when the United States plays the yellow and baby blue on Feb. 17. Gustavsson has had a brilliant start to his 2024-25 season with the Wild, but Sweden will have to choose between Gustavsson, New Jersey 's Jacob Markstrom and Ottawa's Linus Ullmark, who won the 2023 Vezina Trophy. "I would love to score on him. That would be a lot of fun," Faber said. "A lot more fun than scoring on him in practice." Added Boldy, "I've got to be so nice to him to keep his confidence up here, so it will be nice to shoot to score for once." Gustavsson represented Sweden at the most recent World Championship and went 6-1 to help his country win bronze. Through mid-December, he was leading the NHL in both goals-against average and save percentage. "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 is always producing a lot of good goalies, and I knew I had to play my best to be on this roster. I've just been trying to play my game all year and we had some unfinished business last year at the World Championships. So hopefully we can really, really play good there in February." Gustavsson said he's honored to be joined by Brodin, whom he called one of the NHL's most underrated defensemen, and Eriksson Ek, "who's a machine." P R E S E N T E D B Y Matt Boldy and Brock Faber, who helped Team USA capture the 2021 World Junior gold medal, will team up once again on the international stage.