Thompson developing ‘more mature game’ with Sabres, lands U.S. role at Olympics

NEW YORK -- Tage Thompson was in Boston for the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game as an insurance policy in case the United States needed a replacement at forward.

"They had a sickness running through the team and a couple guys injured, so I was there for backup," said Thompson, the Buffalo Sabres' American-born forward. "I tried to steer clear of them. I didn't want to get in their way."

Thompson skated at TD Garden before the championship game on Feb. 20, 2025, and stayed to watch the 3-2 overtime loss to Canada, which ended with a goal by Connor McDavid.

His disappointment in watching his countrymen come so close against the Canadians aside, being in the building, and that close to being on the U.S. roster, gave Thompson a better understanding of best-on-best hockey and an idea of what he needed to do to be a part of it.

"Just the atmosphere and the competition makes you want to be out there playing in that kind of game," Thompson said. "It gets me real excited for this opportunity."

This opportunity is the big one. Thompson will play for Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, which runs from Feb. 11-22.

Thompson and Clayton Keller (Utah Mammoth) are the two forwards on the U.S. Olympic team that were not on its 4 Nations roster. They went to the 2025 IIHF World Championship and helped the U.S. win gold for the first time in 92 years. Thompson scored the golden goal in a 1-0 win against Switzerland on May 25 and its first gold medal in the tournament since 1933. He finished the tournament with six goals in 10 games.

"To win it certainly showed that I could play in big games and get the job done," Thompson said.

Winning at the Worlds is a reason why they're on the Olympic team, but for Thompson it goes beyond a big goal because his ability to score was never questioned.

He had 13 goals in 20 games when the 4 Nations rosters were announced last season. He had 26 in 48 games when the League paused for the tournament. He is 10th in the NHL with 180 goals since the start of the 2021-22 season.

"It takes more," U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said.

Thompson is on the Olympic team because he has delivered on the need to bring more to the table than just the ability to score.

"I think he has a more mature game," Sullivan said.

U.S. general manager Bill Guerin said he was looking for Thompson to showcase his complete game at the World Championship, especially in the gold-medal game.

"It was a 1-0 overtime game," Guerin said. "It's tight-checking, it's close. You can't make mistakes. It's not just taking a chance to get a point or a goal, it's about playing winning hockey. That's exactly what we were looking for and looking at."

Thompson continued to showcase his complete game every time Guerin saw him play in the first half of this season.

He leads the Sabres (24-16-4) this season with 22 goals and 42 points in 44 games, including nine goals and 10 assists since Dec. 9, a stretch that has seen Buffalo win 13 of 15 games heading into a nationally-televised game against the Philadelphia Flyers at KeyBank Center on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, TVAS).

But when discussing Thompson, Guerin recalled a specific game when he wasn't at his best in the offensive zone.

"He wasn't as dynamic offensively as I was used to seeing him, but he wasn't just taking chance after chance after chance to try to score," Guerin said. "He was actually playing responsibly. He was playing the position of center the way it should be played in the defensive zone and the offensive zone. You could tell that he's put an effort into doing what he needs to do to become a better 200-foot player."

The Sabres are seeing that on a regular basis this season.

"I think our defending has gotten a lot better, I think Tage's defending has gotten a lot better," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "I think game management is a big thing and he's understanding that part of it too."

Thompson is a plus-4 in his past 15 games. The Sabres are plus-19 since. Dec. 9 as a team, outscoring opponents 54-35. They are 11-0-0 when leading after two periods in that stretch and 18-1-0 this season.

"If I'm not scoring, what else am I doing to impact the game?" Thompson said. "I want to be a guy that the coach can rely on in all situations. Obviously, when you're competing for a spot on the Olympic team there's the best players in the world, so you've got to find something to do that separates yourself from the other guys.

“For me, I want to make sure I'm as versatile as possible -- someone they can use where ever they want, be responsible defensively and hard to play against. If they need that from me, that's something I have to show throughout the season, and obviously it'll help our team win games too."

Thompson's role for the U.S. in the Olympics is still undefined, but gaining the trust of Guerin and Sullivan over the past several months gave him the chance to at least have a role beyond last-minute emergency replacement that he was at 4 Nations.

But it was there that he saw firsthand what it would take to play at the highest level.

He'll get the chance to do it himself in the Olympics.

"He just plays the right way," Sabres defenseman Owen Power said. "He plays hard. He's good on the forecheck. He makes the players around him a lot better. Obviously, the scoring is what everyone else sees, but he's got a lot of other intangibles that you don't see unless you watch him over and over again every night."