[2] Also present at the press conference were NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) executive director Marty Walsh and four NHL players: Connor McDavid (Canada), Sebastian Aho (Finland), Elias Pettersson (Sweden), and Auston Matthews (United States).

[3] At the press conference, Bettman announced plans for NHL participation in international best-on-best tournaments in coming years.

[12][13][14] Czech forward David Pastrnak called the omission of Czechia a "huge disappointment", though he said he understood there was limited time to organize the tournament.

[15][16] In early reporting on the tournament's format, journalist Greg Wyshynski wrote that the competition could not be considered best-on-best due to the omission of players from other ice hockey powers.

[18] Following the game, tournament MVP Nathan MacKinnon stated "A lot of stuff going on with Canada and the USA right now, and us playing against each other was kind of a perfect storm for our sport.

[23] The league confirmed on June 8, 2024, that the venues would be Bell Centre in Montreal and TD Garden in Boston,[24] after months of reports by various media sources.

If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:[30] Teams consisted of 23 players: 20 skaters (forwards and defencemen) and 3 goaltenders.

[38] On June 25, Jon Cooper was named Canada's head coach for both the 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Winter Olympics.

[39] Rick Tocchet, Bruce Cassidy, and Peter DeBoer joined Cooper as assistant coaches for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

[32][41] On January 26, 2025, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo withdrew from the tournament;[42] Drew Doughty was announced as his replacement on February 9.

Head coach: Jon Cooper Jere Lehtinen was the general manager, and his assistants were Mikko Koivu and Jarmo Kekalainen.

[55] On February 2, he and defenseman Jani Hakanpaa, who was also injured, were replaced by Urho Vaakanainen and Henri Jokiharju.

[56] On February 9, defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was ruled out due to injury, and was replaced by Nikolas Matinpalo.

[32][60] On January 29, 2025, goaltender Jacob Markstrom withdrew from the tournament due to injury, and was replaced by Samuel Ersson.

[61] On February 3, forward William Karlsson also withdrew due to injury, and was replaced by Rickard Rakell.

Head coach: Sam Hallam In February 2024, Bill Guerin was announced as general manager of the United States team for the 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Winter Olympics.

[71] On February 9, defenseman Quinn Hughes withdrew from the tournament due to a lower-body injury, and was replaced by Jake Sanderson.

[72][73] On February 18, Quinn Hughes attempted to rejoin the tournament while Charlie McAvoy withdrew from the championship game after suffering an upper-body injury during the game against Finland, but ultimately did not rejoin and Team USA added Tage Thompson and Brett Pesce as emergency backups.

Standby referee Pierre Lambert officiated two periods after replacing Wes McCauley during the first intermission of the Sweden–United States game.