Olympic rosters include 135 AHL alumni

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … With the 2010 Olympic Winter Games just six weeks away, 135 American Hockey League graduates have been selected to represent their countries in Vancouver, B.C.

The provisional 23-man rosters of all 12 teams in the men’s ice hockey tournament were announced between Dec. 23 and Jan. 1. The final Olympic rosters will be registered on Feb. 15 at the directorate meeting one day prior to the beginning of the tournament.

Participants include 37 former American Hockey League All-Stars, including Dustin Brown, Ryan Callahan, Ryan Kesler, Mike Komisarek, Ryan Miller, Zach Parise and Bobby Ryan on the United States roster and Patrice Bergeron, Eric Staal and Dan Boyle from Team Canada.

Twelve former Calder Cup champions are also headed to Vancouver, among them Tomas Fleischmann (Czech Republic), Mike Richards (Canada), Dennis Seidenberg (Germany), Mikhail Grabovski and Andrei Kostitsyn (Belarus) and 2005 Calder Cup Playoffs MVP Antero Niittymaki (Finland).

Slovakia boasts a tournament-high 18 AHL graduates, followed by the United States (16), the Czech Republic (15), Finland (14), Russia (13), Canada (12) and Germany (11). The complete list of alumni follows this release.

Among the 135 alumni are nine players who have skated in the American Hockey League this season: Germany defenseman Alexander Sulzer (Milwaukee) and forward Philip Gogulla (Portland); Switzerland defenseman Yannick Weber (Hamilton) and Andres Ambuhl (Hartford); Belarus forward Sergei Kostitsyn (Hamilton); Czech Republic forward Tomas Fleischmann (Hershey); and Latvia defenseman Oskars Bartulis (Adirondack) and forwards Martins Karsums (Norfolk) and Kaspars Daugavins (Binghamton).

AHL experience can be found behind the benches as well. John Tortorella, who won a Calder Cup as head coach of the Rochester Americans in 1996, and Scott Gordon, the AHL’s coach of the year with the Providence Bruins in 2007-08, will serve as assistants under former AHL forward Ron Wilson for the United States. Former AHL head coach Mike Babcock will guide Canada’s Olympic team, with former AHL players Lindy Ruff and Jacques Lemaire serving as associate coaches.

Other notable AHL alumni at the 2010 Olympics will include all NHL career wins and shutouts leader Martin Brodeur (Canada); 2009 Stanley Cup champions Marc-Andre Fleury (Canada), Brooks Orpik (USA), Sergei Gonchar (Russia) and Miroslav Satan (Slovakia); and 2009 Norris Trophy winner Zdeno Chara (Slovakia). In addition, AHL linesman Peter Feola has been selected to officiate in Vancouver.