It’s just days away until the top players in world hockey meet in Slovakia for the 2019 IIHF World Championships, and for some players from this years Champions Hockey League, it’s another chance to go for silverware.
Slovakia are the hosts for the first time since 2011, and once again the cities of Bratislava and Košice will be the base for the games.
The home fans will surely get behind their team that has some high profile stars like Tomáš Tatar, but there will be CHL interest with 25-year-old Michal Krištof (Kärpät Oulu) who helped his club to the Liiga Final, and trailing only Nicklas Lasu in CHL scoring for the Finnish side.
One of the most talked about players coming into this tournament is 18-year-old TPS Turku winger Kaapo Kakko, who comes in ranked second ahead of this summer’s NHL draft.
After two goals in Turku’s CHL campaign, he had a fantastic domestic campaign and is one of the leading young players for Team Finland this year, also joined by Veini Vehviläinen of Kärpät Oulu who joins the squad as part of a young goaltending core.
Mats Rosseli Olsen and Mats Nørstebø of the Frölunda Indians are the only members from this years CHL winning side to make it to the World Championships, both representing Norway, who also feature other CHLers including Patrick Thoresen (Storhamar Hamar) who led all Norwegians this year with 10 points in eight games, and former CHL MVP Mathis Olimb also joining the side.
Red Bull Munich reached the DEL Final this year and Yannic Seidenberg, Yasin Ehliz and Frank Mauer will join up with the national team of Germany to try and replicate their success from last years Olympics where they took home a silver medal.
Austria have the most CHL representation with 11 players from the CHL, seven of whom played for semi-finalists Red Bull Salzburg, with three joining from the Vienna Capitals and Konstantin Komarek of the Malmö Redhawks joining the Austrian side as they search for their first medal at the World Championships since 1947.
After finishing as silver medallists in the World Championships held in Denmark last year, Switzerland will turn to a strong CHL contingent with the headline being Leonardo Genoni (SC Bern) in net after the 31-year-old backstopped the national team to their first medal at the World Championships since 2013.
Former CHL MVP Šimon Hrubec (HC Oceláři Třinec) is called up for his first World Championships and also joining the Czech side is Jan Kovář of HC Pilsen who joined the side after beginning the year in North America, putting up three points in as many games in the CHL and joins the World Championships squad a year after serving as an alternate captain for the Czech Republic at the Olympics.
While a lot of players from the previous CHL season will be present at the World Championships, there will also be representation from previous seasons, with players like Elias Pettersson joining Team Sweden after a fantastic rookie season for Vancouver in the NHL.
The former Växjö Lakers star put up nine points in 11 CHL games in the 2017-18 season and has gone on to be a sensation in North America with 66 points in 71 games for the Canucks.
After a 25-year absence from the top division, Great Britain return to the top division and will have four members who represented the Cardiff Devils last year, with goalie Ben Bowns being the headline name for the Brits.
Italy also make their return to the top division and they’ll have plenty of CHL representation from HC Bolzano, while Giovanni Moroni of HC Lugano and Thomas Hochkofler of Red Bull Salzburg also join the side.
The final two nations with CHL players in their ranks will be France and Latvia, with Anthony Guttig and Nicolas Ritz of the Rouen Dragons highlight a strong French roster, while Guntis Galvinš and Roberts Bukarts of HC Oceláři Třinec join up with the Latvian side.
The World Championships begin on Friday 10th May with Finland and Canada getting the tournament underway.