As the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament begins tonight, the 4 Nations favorites and odds are just one component of wagering interest and fan speculation.
The primary concern in Ontario, besides rooting for Canada, will be how the three Toronto Maple Leafs players participating in the four-team event will fare over the next couple of weeks.
Three nations will have a Leafs star on their roster, all forwards: Mitch Marner for Canada, Auston Matthews for the United States and William Nylander for Sweden.
Here is a closer look at those three from an Ontario sports betting angle.
| Leafs Player | Nation | NHL Stats in 2024-25 |
| Mitch Marner | Canada | 54 games, 16 goals, 55 assists |
| Auston Matthews | United States | 40 games, 20 goals, 25 assists |
| William Nylander | Sweden | 55 games, 33 goals, 22 assists |
Toronto would have had four players in the tournament – one each on every participating nation’s roster – but Finnish defenceman Jani Hakanpaa is out injured.
The inaugural event starts tonight with Canada facing Sweden at the Bell Centre in Montreal (TNT, SN) at 8 Eastern. Team USA opens against Finland at 8 p.m. Thursday, also in Montreal.
Marner, the subject of trade talk last year, is having perhaps his finest season in 2024-25 and is helping to boost Toronto Maple Leafs Stanley Cup odds. His 55 assists are the most on the Leafs and is third in the league behind only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon (66 assists) and Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov (57).
The 27-year-old forward is on pace for his first 100-point season. Marner came close to that mark in the 2022-23 season with 99 points (30 goals, 69 assists). At his current rate of 71 points in 54 games, he’d hit 106 points this season, assuming he stays healthy for Toronto’s remaining 27 games.
At FanDuel Ontario Sportsbook, Marner has -102 American odds to have over 3.5 points for the tournament, compared to -125 odds of going under.
In his ninth NHL season, the 27-year-old American centre is having a slightly down season by his lofty standards, largely because of injuries.
Matthews missed nine games in November with an upper-body ailment, then reaggravated the injury in December and missed six more games around the holidays. With 45 points in 40 games, he in on pace for 75 points, if he plays all 27 remaining games for the Leafs in the regular season. Though Toronto Maple Leafs betting odds are still strong, that would be his lowest total since a 66-point campaign in 2020-21 in a season shortened because of restrictions related to COVID-19.
Still, he’s as big of a goalscoring threat as there is in hockey when he’s on his game and the U.S. team will rely on him heavily. Matthews is the favorite to lead the tournament in scoring at +800 odds with DraftKings Ontario Sportsbook, followed by three Canadians at +1000 each – Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point and Florida’s Sam Reinhart.
Another veteran Leafs forward is one of the biggest stars on Team Sweden for the opener tonight against Canada. Nylander has 33 goals for Toronto this season, second in the NHL behind Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl (40) and on pace for a career high. Nylander had 40 goals in each of the past two seasons but at his current rate of 0.6 goals per game, he would hit 49 in 2024-25.
Nylander was born in Calgary but chose to represent his father’s native Sweden on an international level – Michal Nylander played 15 seasons as an NHL forward from 1992 to 2009.
At NorthStar Bets Ontario Sportsbook, William Nylander is the favorite to lead Sweden in scoring at the 4 Nations Face-Off, with +400 odds. That’s just ahead of Nashville’s Filip Forsberg (+450) and Adrian Kempe (+650) of the Los Angeles Kings.
USA Today photo by Brad Penner
Author
Jim Tomlin is an editor and writer specializing in sports, gambling and the intersection of those industries. He has 30+ years of journalism experience and his work has appeared in the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag, Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition.
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