Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews was named captain of  Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off, the NHL announced on Thursday.

Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin met with Matthews and Brad Treliving during the morning skate on Wednesday prior to the clash between the two teams at Scotiabank Arena. The meetings were likely to gauge the captain’s stance on his desire to appear in the tournament and whether there has been a change of heart. With him being named captain, it erases any doubts of his involvement in the festivities barring any setbacks.

It should not come as a surprise that Matthews is going to the 4 Nations as Treliving himself said on January 14 that he believed Matthews would be going to the tournament. It makes sense given that he was among the first players listed on the roster back on June 28th and is going to be the US’s most important pieces given his elite goal-scoring abilities and two-way play. Being given the ‘C’ further affirms that he is going to play a major role for the Americans.

Matthews himself has expressed on numerous occasions his enthusiasm for the event as a precursor for future international competitions involving NHL players such as the Olympics.

“Yeah, it will be fun,” he said to reporters on December 5. “A lot of firepower on all four teams. So I think it’s going to be really exciting for the players of course, but I think the fans. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a best-on-best like this. It’s a pretty good precursor to the Olympics the following year and I think everybody is very excited. It will be fun.”

Of course, there were some serious doubts that this was going to be the case over a month ago when the captain was mired with injuries that dragged on for weeks which included a trip to Munich for treatment. Some went as far as to suggest that the Leafs should prevent Matthews from attending so he can take the time to heal from the ailments that he admitted may not be able to fully move past during the regular season.

But with the way he has been playing since coming back from his second extended time on the shelf, Matthews appears to be back to his usual dominance and playing better than he did at the start of the campaign. Hence why it should come as no surprise that he is going to suit up for Team USA in a few weeks as their captain.