Not every team gets the luxury of playing in the postseason, but thanks to the IIHF World Championship players from teams that failed to make the playoffs get another chance to play some springtime hockey.
This year’s tournament will take place next month in Paris, France and Cologne, Germany. After capturing the gold medal at last year’s tournament, Team Canada will look to repeat this year and will have five players returning from last year’s squad.
Calvin Pickard, Matt Duchene, Michael Matheson, Ryan O’Reilly and Mark Scheifele are the five players returning from last year’s squad and will look to use their experience to help Team Canada repeat. Here’s a look at the first members of this year’s squad, broken down by NHL team.
Buffalo Sabres (1)
Ryan O’Reilly
Carolina Hurricanes (1)
Jeff Skinner
Colorado Avalanche (4)
Tyson Barrie, Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon and Calvin Pickard.
Florida Panthers (2)
Jason Demers, Michael Matheson
New York Islanders (1)
Calvin de Haan
Philadelphia Flyers (4)
Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux, Travis Konecny and Wayne Simmonds
Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
Brayden Point
Winnipeg Jets (3)
Eric Comrie, Josh Morrissey and Mark Scheifele
The Colorado Avalanche and Philadelphia Flyers lead the way with four players each. Point, Konecny and Morrissey are the NHL rookies on the roster as of right now, while Jets prospect Eric Comrie made the team after just one NHL appearance this past season.
If you’re wondering how this year’s roster matches up against last year’s roster, here’s what Team Canada looked like one year ago.
Canada will take on Switzerland in an exhibition game on May 2 in Geneva, before opening up the tournament against Czech Republic.
Catch the entire tournament on TSN.
