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Kopitar helps Slovenia; Canada, U.S. name rosters
Anze Kopitar celebrates a goal with Sabahudin Kovacevic during the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Photo: Jeff Vinnick / HHOF-IIHF Images
The probably most celebrated news in any country came from Slovenia. The country’s only NHL player, Los Angeles Kings star Anze Kopitar, will join the recently promoted team to the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in the Czech Republic.
“It’s kind of hard to say no to your dad,” he told reporters in Los Angeles about his plans to join the team coached by Matjaz Kopitar. He is expected to arrive for the camp at some point next week. It will be the first time for him to join the national team after the country’s historic seventh-place finish at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Kopitar represented Slovenia in four World Championship events from 2005 to 2008, three of them in the top division.
Also group rival Slovakia can count on an NHL star as another Los Angeles Kings player, Marian Gaborik, will play in the Czech Republic.
Among the NHLers for the host country, Jakub Voracek will join the Czech national team. Jaromir Jagr, who originally announced his retirement in international play last May, will practise with the national team but hasn’t decided yet whether he will come back from retirement for the national team or not.
The Swedish Ice Hockey Association announced that goalkeeper Jhonas Enroth (Dallas), defencemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson (Arizona) and Oscar Klefbom (Edmonton) as well as forwards Anton Lander (Edmonton), Elias Lindholm (Carolina), Joakim Lindström (Toronto) and Victor Rask (Carolina) will play at the World Championship.
Continue readingFinland will be joined by NHL defencemen Jyrki Jokipakka (Dallas), Rasmus Ristolainen (Buffalo) and forwards Aleksander Barkov (Florida) and Jussi Jokinen (Florida).
The Russian national team doesn’t include any NHL players yet but it will soon by joined by Edmonton’s Nail Yakupov.
Last week it was announced that Austria, the other of the two teams promoted to the championship, will have one NHL player at least with Philadelphia Flyers forward Michael Raffl.
Many of the European teams have started training camp with European-based players two weeks ago and will determine their final selection during the camps and exhibition games in the next two weeks.
On Tuesday Hockey Canada and USA Hockey also announced their first selection of players. Scroll down for the preliminary rosters.
Team Canada consists for now of 19 NHL players of which 17 have represented Canada before while Jake Muzzin and David Savard will play for their country for the first time.
The U.S. national team consists now of 16 players including ten from the NHL, two from the Russian KHL and four from college teams.
Team Canada (as of 14 April)
Goaltenders:
Martin Jones, Los Angeles Kings (NHL)
Mike Smith, Arizona Coyotes (NHL)
Defencemen:
Tyson Barrie, Colorado Avalanche (NHL)
Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks (NHL)
Aaron Ekblad, Florida Panthers (NHL)
Jake Muzzin, Los Angeles Kings (NHL)
David Savard, Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL)
Forwards:
Matt Duchene, Colorado Avalanche (NHL)
Cody Eakin, Dallas Stars (NHL)
Jordan Eberle, Edmonton Oilers (NHL)
Tyler Ennis, Buffalo Sabres (NHL)
Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers (NHL)
Taylor Hall, Edmonton Oilers (NHL)
Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche (NHL)
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Edmonton Oilers (NHL)
Ryan O'Rielly, Colorado Avalanche (NHL)
Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars (NHL)
Jason Spezza, Dallas Stars (NHL)
Tyler Toffoli, Los Angeles Kings (NHL)
Team USA (as of 14 April)
Goaltenders:
Alex Lyon, Yale University (ECAC Hockey)
Defencemen:
Connor Murphy, Arizona Coyotes (NHL)
Jake Gardiner, Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL)
John Moore, Arizona Coyotes (NHL)
Justin Faulk, Carolina Hurricanes (NHL)
Mike Reilly, University of Minnesota (Big Ten)
Torey Krug, Boston Bruins (NHL)
Forwards:
Ben Smith, San Jose Sharks (NHL)
Dan Sexton, Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (KHL)
Dylan Larkin, University of Michigan (Big Ten)
Jeremy Morin, Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL)
Jimmy Vesey, Harvard University (ECAC Hockey)
Marc Arcobello, Arizona Coyotes (NHL)
Matt Hendricks, Edmonton Oilers (NHL)
Steve Moses, Jokerit Helsinki (KHL)
Trevor Lewis, Los Angeles Kings (NHL)
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