The Calgary Flames got some good news and bad news on Wednesday when the rosters for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off were announced. The good news is that blueliner Rasmus Andersson will be representing Sweden at the tournament, which runs Feb. 12-20, 2025.

The bad news is that MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t named to Canada’s roster and Mikael Backlund wasn’t named to Sweden’s roster. Neither was considered a roster lock, but neither will be taking part.

Well, probably not.

In its press release featuring the roster announcement, the NHL touts Wednesday’s names as the “final rosters.” But that’s not entirely accurate. You see, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman noted, substitutions for injured players can take place up until the start of the tournament.

When the roster announcements were made, a few currently-injured players were included. For instance, Sweden’s roster includes Minnesota Wild blueliner Jonas Brodin and Edmonton Oilers forward Viktor Arvidsson, both currently on their respective clubs’ injury reserve lists.

Sweden general manager Josef Boumedienne indicated that some currently-injured players were included on the team rosters after consulting with their club teams and representatives about their expected availability. But when asked about whether some players not named to the roster were told they may be potential substitutes – the 4 Nations Face-Off doesn’t officially have reserve players – Boumedienne indicated that was the case.

“We we let some of the players know that they’re high on the list pending injuries and then, you know, to plan to be available,” said Boumedienne. “But obviously, it’s long. Two months to go to at that point. So a lot can happen. But yes, we did tell a few guys and that, you know, they’re high up on the list.”

Swedish outlet Expressen managed to publish Sweden’s entire roster over an hour before the official announcement. While their original report included the inclusion of Backlund and Adam Larsson as reserve players, none were announced by the four national teams. But it would be logical to presume that they would potentially among the players told to stay ready.

So if you’re hoping to see Andersson joined by some other Flames players for the 4 Nations Face-Off… don’t rule it out until the tournament begins, because if one of Sweden’s 13 announced forwards or Canada’s seven announced blueliners turn out to be unavailable due to injury, you could potentially see Backlund or Weegar called in as substitutes. (Given that this event is a precursor to the 2026 Winter Olympic tournament, we would doubt players would beg off from this tournament to rest or go on vacation.)

In addition to Arvidsson, currently Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson and Minnesota’s Joel Eriksson Ek are out of action with injuries among Sweden’s announced forwards, but it’s currently unclear whether any of those three would remain unavailable two months from now. Currently all of Canada’s blueliners remain active.

The 4 Nations Face-off runs Feb. 12-20, 2025 in Montreal and Boston.