Hockey Slovakia released a list of 26 players
that will be headed to Stockholm, Sweden for this year’s IIHF World
Championship. It includes no full-time NHL players, most
notably Juraj Slafkovský, whose decision not to play is
covered
in depth by Karine Hains on THN’s
Montreal Canadiens site.
Players
under NHL contracts that have played either most or all of the season
in the AHL include goaltender Samuel
Hlavaj of the Minnesota Wild,
defenseman Samuel Kňažko
of the Columbus
Blue Jackets, and forwards Dalibor
Dvorský
of the St.
Louis Blues, Samuel Honzek of the Calgary
Flames, Martin Chromiak of the
Los Angeles Kings and Adam Sýkora of
the New York Rangers. Kňažko,
whose Cleveland Monsters were just eliminated from the Calder Cup
playoffs, will meet the team in Stockholm.
Pavol
Regenda, a San Jose Sharks
prospect, is two games away from elimination with the San Jose
Barracuda and, reportedly, will likely join the Slovaks if his AHL
team is eliminated this round.
This
will be the first World Championship
since 2021 that the Slovaks have included KHL players on their
roster. For three years, Hockey Slovakia refused to select any player
from the Russian-based league for its national teams.
However, in a
controversial reversal of policy, Slovakia chose three KHL
players to its
Olympic qualifying roster in August. One of those, defenseman
Mário Grman, is on this team as well. One
other has been selected to this team: Patrik Rybár,
who was the starting goaltender on the 2022
Olympic bronze-medal team.
Interestingly, neither Martin nor Kristián
Pospišil is on this team. Martin plays for Calgary, which
missed the Stanley Cup playoffs, and Kristián won
the Czech Extraliga championship as a member of Kometa Brno. Both
brothers were vocal last year about their objection to allowing KHL
players on the team, but both
ultimately played in the Olympic qualifiers.
Other
than AHL and KHL players, the roster includes 10 players from the
Czech Extraliga, five from the domestic Slovak Extraliga and two from
Switzerland’s National League.
Martin Pospíšil after Olympic qualifiers: “It was never anything against the players” from the KHL Martin Pospíšil was calm and reflective after Slovakia’s 3-1 victory over Kazakhstan on Sunday in Bratislava, which qualified the team for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
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