SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … With the 2016 World Cup of Hockey getting underway today, 128 former and current American Hockey League players have been selected to participate in the two-week tournament.
Each of the eight participating teams has no fewer than a dozen AHL alumni on its 23-man roster, with Team Europe leading the way with 19. The United States and Finland have 18 graduates each; the Czech Republic has 17; Canada and Sweden show 15 each; Team North America has 14 AHL alumni and Russia has 12. The complete list of alumni is below.
Sixteen World Cup players skated in the AHL during the 2015-16 season, including 2016 Second Team AHL All-Star and eventual Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) and 2016 NHL All-Rookie Team selections Shayne Gostisbehere (Lehigh Valley) and John Gibson (San Diego) of Team North America, as well as 2016 AHL All-Star Esa Lindell (Texas) of Finland.
A total of 31 former AHL All-Stars are on World Cup rosters, including Patrice Bergeron, Logan Couture, Jay Bouwmeester and 2016 Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby from Canada; Zach Parise, Ryan Kesler, Kyle Palmieri, Ben Bishop, Dustin Byfuglien and Cory Schneider from the United States; and J.T. Miller and Connor Hellebuyck from North America. Zdeno Chara, Mats Zuccarello and Nino Niederreiter (Europe); Mikko Koivu, Pekka Rinne and Tuukka Rask (Finland); Artem Anisimov, Vladislav Namestnikov and Alexey Marchenko (Russia); Jacob Markstrom (Sweden); and Tomas Plekanec and Michal Jordan (Czech Republic) were also All-Stars during their AHL careers.
Thirteen former Calder Cup champions are playing in the tournament, including playoff MVP’s Tomas Tatar of Europe (Grand Rapids, 2013), Michal Neuvirth of the Czech Republic (Hershey, 2009) and Carey Price of Canada (Hamilton, 2007). Other Calder Cup winners include Petr Mrazek and Ondrej Palat (Czech Republic), Dennis Seidenberg (Europe), Jyrki Jokipakka (Finland) and John Carlson (United States).
AHL experience will be found behind Olympic benches as well, including current Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Scott Gordon serving as an assistant for the United States. Additionally, 13 former AHL head coaches are working in the tournament: Canada head coach Mike Babcock and assistants Claude Julien, Bill Peters, Joel Quenneville and Barry Trotz; Europe assistants Paul Maurice and Brad Shaw; North America head coach Todd McLellan and assistant Jon Cooper; and Team USA head coach John Tortorella and assistants Jack Capuano, John Hynes and Mike Sullivan.
AHL Alumni on World Cup of Hockey Rosters (as of 9/16/16)
Canada (15)
Patrice Bergeron, F
Jay Bouwmeester, D
Brent Burns, D
Logan Couture, F
Corey Crawford, G
Ryan Getzlaf, F
Claude Giroux, F
Braden Holtby, G
Brad Marchand, F
Jake Muzzin, D
Corey Perry, F
Alex Pietrangelo, D
Carey Price, G
Marc-Edouard Vlasic, D
Shea Weber, D
Czech Republic (17)
Michal Birner, F
Radek Faksa, F
Dmitrij Jaskin, F
Michal Jordan, D
Tomas Kundratek, D
Milan Michalek, F
Zbynek Michalek, D
Petr Mrazek, G
Michal Neuvirth, G
Jakub Nakladal, D
Ondrej Palat, F
David Pastrnak, F
Ondrej Pavelec, G
Tomas Plekanec, F
Roman Polak, D
Vladimir Sobotka, F
Andrej Sustr, D
Europe (19)
Mikkel Boedker, F
Zdeno Chara, D
Leon Draisaitl, F
Christian Ehrhoff, D
Thomas Greiss, G
Philipp Grubauer, G
Jaroslav Halak, G
Jannik Hansen, F
Roman Josi, D
Nino Niederreiter, F
Frans Nielsen, F
Tobias Rieder, F
Luca Sbisa, D
Dennis Seidenberg, D
Andrej Sekera, D
Mark Streit, D
Tomas Tatar, F
Thomas Vanek, F
Mats Zuccarello, F
Finland (18)
Valtteri Filppula, F
Mikael Granlund, F
Erik Haula, F
Jyrki Jokipakka, D
Mikko Koivu, F
Leo Komarov, F
Mikko Koskinen, G
Lauri Korpikoski, F
Jori Lehtera, F
Sami Lepisto, D
Esa Lindell, D
Olli Maatta, D
Ville Pokka, D
Tuukka Rask, G
Pekka Rinne, G
Rasmus Ristolainen, D
Teuvo Teravainen, F
Sami Vatanen, D
North America (14)
Sean Couturier, F
Jonathan Drouin, F
John Gibson, G
Shayne Gostisbehere, D
Connor Hellebuyck, G
Dylan Larkin, F
J.T. Miller, F
Matt Murray, G
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, F
Colton Parayko, D
Morgan Rielly, D
Brandon Saad, F
Mark Scheifele, F
Vincent Trocheck, F
Russia (12)
Artem Anisimov, F
Evgenii Dadonov, F
Nikita Kucherov, F
Nikolai Kulemin, F
Andrei Markov, D
Alexey Marchenko, D
Vladislav Namestnikov, F
Nikita Nesterov, D
Dmitry Orlov, D
Ivan Telegin, F
Semyon Varlamov, G
Andrei Vasilevskiy, G
Sweden (15)
Mikael Backlund, F
Mattias Ekholm, D
Oliver Ekman-Larsson, D
Jhonas Enroth, G
Loui Eriksson, F
Filip Forsberg, F
Carl Hagelin, F
Niklas Hjalmarsson, D
Patric Hornqvist, F
Erik Karlsson, D
Marcus Kruger, F
Hampus Lindholm, D
Jacob Markstrom, G
Jakob Silfverberg, F
Anton Stralman, D
United States (18)
Justin Abdelkader, F
David Backes, F
Ben Bishop, G
Dustin Byfuglien, D
John Carlson, D
Brandon Dubinsky, F
Erik Johnson, D
Ryan Kesler, F
Ryan McDonagh, D
Matt Niskanen, D
Max Pacioretty, F
Kyle Palmieri, F
Zach Parise, F
Joe Pavelski, F
Jonathan Quick, G
Cory Schneider, G
Ryan Suter, D
James van Riemsdyk, F
In operation since 1936, the AHL continues to serve as the top development league for all 30 National Hockey League teams. More than 88 percent of today’s NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame spent time in the AHL in their careers. In 2015-16, over 7.1 million fans attended AHL regular-season and playoff games across North America, the highest total attendance in league history.
