Daily Faceoff projects Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies to crack Team USA Olympic roster

Daily Faceoff projects that Toronto Maple Leafs forwards Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies will be selected to Team USA’s roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Matt Larkin and Anthony Trudeau made their early Milan roster projections for the American team on Monday, with both of them featuring Matthews and Knies in the forward lineup. The primary difference between the two was that Larkin had Knies in the starting lineup alongside Matthews and Jack Hughes, while Trudeau had Knies as one of the extra forwards.

Trudeau’s reasoning for why Knies was one of the extra forwards was to slot in should either one of Matthew or Brady Tkachuk get injured, since he considered Knies to carry similar playstyle traits. As for Larkin, he argued that the built-in chemistry with Matthews was enough to get Knies into the lineup.

“Knies goes from off the team to my second line? Hear me out. I’m not being a Toronto Maple Leafs homer. If Knies makes USA, it makes sense to play him with his usual linemate Matthews, and Hughes’ playmaking on the right side can duplicate what Mitch Marner brought in Toronto. That’s an extremely balanced trio.” -Matt Larkin, DFO

Should Knies make the United States’ Olympic roster, it would be his second appearance as he previously played for his country during the 2022 Games in Beijing. He recorded two points (a goal and an assist) in four games for an American roster filled with former NHL stars and college athletes like himself at the time.

Matthews was already named one of the initial six players to the US roster, so it should come as no surprise that he will once again be representing his country on the global stage. Frank Seravalli reported that Matthews will once again captain his country, his second straight tournament doing so after he got the honour at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

While Matthews and Knies were the only Leafs to crack the roster, they were not the only ones that Larkin and Trudeau considered being part of the lineup. Both of them listed Anthony Stolarz as a goalie they had in the mix to be one of the three netminders, though he ultimately didn’t make the cut.