CALGARY, Alta. – Hockey Canada announced Friday the 24 players who will represent Canada at the 2011 Spengler Cup, December 26-31 in Davos, Switzerland. The roster is comprised of Canadian players currently playing in Europe, as well as players currently playing in the American Hockey League loaned to Hockey Canada by NHL teams.
The team was assembled by Brad Pascall, Hockey Canada's vice-president of hockey operations/national teams, along with Hockey Canada's national teams staff, head coach Marc Crawford (Belleville, Ont.) and assistant coaches Doug Shedden (Wallaceburg, Ont.) and Trent Yawney (Hudson Bay, Sask.).
"The players we have selected today are Canadian ambassadors for the game, both in North America and Europe, and we are excited they will wear the maple leaf in Davos," said Pascall. "We look forward to getting on the ice in Switzerland and representing Canada proudly."
Canada's roster for the 2011 Spengler Cup includes:
eight players who were part of last year's team, which lost the championship game (Down,
Kwiatkoswki, Metropolit, Brett McLean, Murphy, Pelletier, Roche, Vigier);
four players who have seen action for Canada at the IIHF World Championship (Kwiatkowski, Metropolit, Murphy,
Roest);
five players who represented Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championship (Allen, Fata, McLean, Parent,
Reid).
three players loaned by NHL teams (Allen – St. Louis; McLean – Chicago; Parent – Vancouver)
This year's Spengler Cup will include Canada's National Men's Team, HC Vitkovice Steel (Czech Republic) and HC Davos (Switzerland), the host team, playing in the Cattini Group, and Dinamo Riga (Latvia), EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams (Germany) and the Kloten Flyers (Switzerland) playing in the Torriani Group.
Canada opens the tournament Dec. 26 against HC Vitkovice Steel at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT. All of Canada's games at the 2011 Spengler Cup will be broadcast on TSN or TSN2.
Canada has appeared in nine of the last 11 championship games, winning the Spengler Cup in 2002, 20. Overall, Canada's National Men's Team has won the Spengler Cup 11 times (1984, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2007) since first taking part in the tournament in 1984.
The Spengler Cup, held annually since 1923, is the oldest professional international hockey tournament in the world.