Saskatoon, SK – The Canadian Hockey League today announced that a total of 53 current CHL players are listed on official International Ice Hockey Federation rosters and will be competing in the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships taking place in Regina and Saskatoon, SK.
Team Canada leads the way with 21 players followed by the Czech Republic with nine, and the United States with eight current CHL players on the roster. Both Finland and Russia have four CHL players, followed by Switzerland with three and Slovakia with two CHL players, and both Austria and Sweden with one player each. Latvia is the only country competing in the tournament without any current CHL players on their roster.
The Western Hockey League leads the way with 21 players competing in the tournament followed by the Ontario Hockey League with 20 players, and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with 12 players spread out amongst the nine rosters. The OHL’s Windsor Spitfires have a CHL-high six players competing in the event including four on Team Canada. The Portland Winterhawks lead the WHL with three players, and the Rimouski Oceanic and the Victoriaville Tigres each have two players representing the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
In addition to the 53 players competing in Saskatchewan, seven other CHL players represented their countries at the 2010 IIHF World Under-20 Division IA and IB tournaments earlier this month.
In the Division IA tournament, Germany came out on top following a 4-0 win on December 20th over Denmark and will compete at the 2011 World Junior Championships. The Germans were led by Konrad Abelthauser of the Halifax Mooseheads and goaltender Philipp Grubauer of the Belleville Bulls. Simon Gronvaldt of the Barrie Colts and Sebastian Svendsen of the Vancouver Giants represented Denmark, while Gasper Kopitar of the Portland Winterhawks represented Slovenia. At the Division IB event, Igor Revenko of the Prince Albert Raiders and Sergei Drozd of the Tri-City Americans competed for Team Belarus in Gdansk, Poland. Emerging from that group was Norway who will compete in the 2011 World Junior Championships following a 3-0 win over Italy.
The 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships begins today with four games including the host Team Canada against Latvia at 3:00 pm Saskatchewan Time.
OHL Players Competing at the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships:
Canada (7):
Calvin de Haan, Oshawa Generals
Stefan Della Rovere, Barrie Colts
Ryan Ellis, Windsor Spitfires
Taylor Hall, Windsor Spitfires
Adam Henrique, Windsor Spitfires
Nazem Kadri, London Knights
Greg Nemisz, Windsor Spitfires
Czech Republic (1):
Michal Jordan, Plymouth Whalers
Finland (2):
Petteri Simila, Niagara IceDogs
Matias Sointu, Sudbury Wolves
Russia (3):
Alexander Burmistrov, Barrie Colts
Ramis Sadikov, Erie Otters
Ivan Telegin, Saginaw Spirit
In addition to the players listed above, four players including Igor Bobkov, Maxim Kitsyn, Kirill Petrov, and Nikita Pivtsakin all played for Team Russia in the 2009 SUBWAY Super Series.
Slovakia (1):
Richard Panik, Windsor Spitfires
Sweden (1):
Patrik Andersson, Kitchener Rangers
USA (5):
Cam Fowler, Windsor Spitfires
AJ Jenks, Plymouth Whalers
Brian Lashoff, Kingston Frontenacs
Philip McRae, London Knights
Jeremy Morin, Kitchener Rangers
In addition, Jack Campbell of the U.S National Under-18 Team is committed to the Windsor Spitfires for the 2010-11 season, and John Carlson of the Hershey Bears competed with the London Knights in the 2008-09 season.
For a complete list of CHL players competing in the event please visit www.chl.ca
For more information about the 2010 World Junior Hockey Championships and for complete team rosters please visit www.hockeycanada.ca and www.iihf.com
