Switzerland Announces Roster For 2024 World Championship
The Swiss Ice Hockey Federation announced its roster for the 2024 World Championship on Monday, becoming the final team in Group A to do so. Their complement of players, staffed with a handful of current impact NHLers and former major-league players, will aim to reverse some disappointing results for Switzerland in recent years.
It’ll be a tougher job with more NHL participation for the big-name countries than in years past. Switzerland has been eliminated in quarterfinal action at the Worlds in four straight tournaments despite being one of the strongest teams in group play, compiling a 21-5-1-1 record since 2019. In 2022, they were undefeated champions of Group A but lost 3-0 to the United States and were handed an even more major upset by Germany last year after winning Group B.
With four full-time NHLers in tow, their roster is of similar strength to the last couple of years. The full complement of talent is as follows:
F Andres Ambühl (Davos, NL)
F Sven Andrighetto (ZSC Lions, NL)
F Thierry Bader (Bern, NL)
F Christoph Bertschy (Fribourg-Gottéron, NL)
F Gaetan Haas (Biel-Bienne, NL)
F Fabrice Herzog (Zug, NL) NHL rights held by Maple Leafs
F Nico Hischier (Devils, NHL)
F Ken Jäger (Lausanne, NL)
F Philipp Kurashev (Blackhawks)
F Nino Niederreiter (Jets, NHL)
F Tristan Scherwey (Bern, NL)
F Sven Senteler (Zug, NL)
F Dario Simion (Zug, NL)
F Calvin Thurkauf (Lugano, NL) NHL rights held by Blue Jackets
D Michael Fora (Davos, NL)
D Andrea Glauser (Lausanne, NL)
D Sven Jung (Davos, NL)
D Dean Kukan (ZSC Lions, NL)
D Romain Loeffel (Bern, NL)
D Christian Marti (ZSC Lions, NL)
D Jonas Siegenthaler (Devils, NHL)
G Reto Berra (Fribourg-Gottéron, NL)
G Leonardo Genoni (Zug, NL)
G Akira Schmid (Devils, NL)
Up front, Niederreiter is back in the fold after captaining the club in 2023. He and Hischier will be the focal points of their offense, which is somewhat surprisingly without Kings winger Kevin Fiala after Los Angeles was eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Fiala suited up for Switzerland at last year’s tournament, potting a goal and five assists in six games.
Also notable is the presence of the 40-year-old Ambühl, who’s suiting up in his 19th World Championship for the Swiss. The Davos captain has been named the Swiss National League’s Most Popular Player in seven of the last eight years and was named a top-three player on last year’s team after scoring four goals in eight games.
Joining Hischier is a pair of Devils teammates, Siegenthaler and Schmid. Siegenthaler will be the Swiss’ top option on the blue line, supplemented by Kukan and his 153 games of NHL experience with the Blue Jackets from 2015 to 2022. Glauser is expected to join the Islanders next season after nine seasons and nearly 300 games at the top level of Swiss hockey.
In net, Switzerland is stronger than in years past. While Schmid is the only NHL-contracted option available, it’s unlikely he’ll be the starter after a difficult season split between the Devils and AHL Utica. Genoni has loads of national team experience and has been relatively consistent, while Berra, who has five years and 76 games of NHL experience, was one of the NL’s top goalies this season with a .929 SV% and 2.01 GAA in 41 games for Fribourg-Gottéron.
USA Hockey Announces Final 2024 World Championship Roster
May 5: USA Hockey has invited nine more players to join their upcoming World Championship roster, including college hockey standouts Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, and Trey Augustine. The roster now carries 21 skaters and two goaltenders, one shy of the limit for both positions. There’s been no indication of who could round out Team USA’s roster, or if the team will look for additional hands at all.
It has also been announced that Dylan Larkin will no longer be able to participate due to injury, per Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). Larkin has been removed from the official roster.
Apr. 24: USA Hockey announced the first 15 players named to their roster for the 2024 World Championship on Wednesday. The remaining eight-ish players will be announced before tournament action begins on May 10.
Only players on the 16 NHL teams who missed out on the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs are on the initial roster. Others will join in as their clubs are bounced from postseason action, even after the World Championship begins.
Early on, it’s clear that the promise of potential spots on the United States roster for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics is making this a more well-attended World Championship than in years past. Some big-ticket stars like Canadiens sniper Cole Caufield, Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin, Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, and Blue Jackets stars Johnny Gaudreau and Zach Werenski highlight the initial roster. The full slate is as follows:
F Matt Boldy (Wild)
F Cole Caufield (Canadiens)
F Michael Eyssimont (Lightning)
F Joel Farabee (Flyers)
F Johnny Gaudreau (Blue Jackets)
F Kevin Hayes (Blues)
F Luke Kunin (Sharks)
F Ryan Leonard (Boston College, Capitals)
F Brock Nelson (Islanders)
F Shane Pinto (Senators)
F Will Smith (Boston College, Sharks)
F Brady Tkachuk (Senators)
F Trevor Zegras (Ducks)
D Luke Hughes (Devils)
D Seth Jones (Blackhawks)
D Jake Sanderson (Senators)
D Alex Vlasic (Blackhawks)
D Zach Werenski (Blue Jackets)
D Jeff Petry (Red Wings)
D Matthew Kessel (Blues)
D Michael Kesselring (Utah HC)
G Alex Lyon (Red Wings)
G Trey Augustine (Michigan State, Red Wings)
This year’s Worlds will take place in Ostrava and Prague, Czechia, although some pre-tournament action is taking place across the border in Bratislava, Slovakia. The U.S. is the highest-ranked country in Group B, which will play its round-robin schedule in Ostrava’s 10,004-seat Ostravar Aréna.
Panthers assistant GM Brett Peterson is at the helm of this year’s men’s national team before Wild GM Bill Guerin takes the reins for the truly best-on-best 2025 and 2026 tournaments. The Americans have won bronze medals in four of the last 10 World Championships (2013, 2015, 2018, 2021) but haven’t won gold since 1960, as part of that year’s Winter Olympics in California. Wild head coach John Hynes will be behind the bench.
Blackhawks Reach TV Deal With Standard Media Group
Like many other NHL teams, mostly those broadcasted on the Bally Sports-branded family of networks, the Blackhawks are changing their television home. Unlike others, they’re not divesting from the regional sports network model entirely. They, along with the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and MLB’s Chicago White Sox, have reached a media rights deal with Standard Media Group to broadcast their games next season and beyond on a yet-to-be-named network, The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus and Scott Powers report.
The move succeeds NBC Sports Chicago as the Blackhawks’ TV home. Their contract is set to expire in October.
Per Lazerus and Powers, the unnamed network will have carriage agreements with both traditional cable providers as well as streaming options. Blackhawks fans within the Chicago media market had the option to stream games on the NBC Sports app if the channel was included in their cable package, but there was no separate streaming-only package offered. It’s unclear if that will change with the new agreement with Standard.
Previous reports indicated the Blackhawks’ next TV deal may have come in partnership with Stadium, a channel primarily broadcasting college sports of which Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Bulls and White Sox, is also the majority owner. That evidently will not be the case.
Other teams, namely the Coyotes and Golden Knights, stopped utilizing the RSN model entirely this season and opted to broadcast their games on over-the-air channels. Both clubs also provided additional streaming subscription options that could be purchased by in-market viewers who aren’t cable subscribers.
West Notes: Toffoli, Brossoit, Hague, Kiviranta
The Jets don’t have a ton of pending unrestricted free agents, but enough to lead to some significant depth turnover after failing to win a playoff series for the third year in a row. Two players who could opt not to re-sign and test the open market are veteran winger Tyler Toffoli and backup netminder Laurent Brossoit, Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe of The Winnipeg Free Press posit.
Brossoit’s return to the Jets last summer for his second stint with the club was a surprise. The 31-year-old’s stock was at an all-time high after posting a .927 SV% in 11 games down the stretch for the Golden Knights after returning from injury, and he was serviceable in eight playoff appearances as Vegas won the Stanley Cup. Some believed he would be able to land a role as a tandem netminder and eclipse his previous career-high of 24 appearances, but he instead opted to return to a familiar role backing up Connor Hellebuyck on a one-year, $1.75MM deal.
It worked out as well as it possibly could for Brossoit, who was excellent with a .927 SV% and three shutouts in 22 starts and one relief appearance. Back-to-back strong seasons after a rather roller-coaster career now have him fully primed to look for more starts on the UFA market in a couple of months.
Toffoli, meanwhile, was underwhelming after the Jets paid a second and third-round pick to acquire him at 50% salary retention from the Devils at the trade deadline. He posted seven goals and 11 points in 18 games down the stretch in the regular season but saw his ice time dip in the postseason, averaging only 14:05 per game against the Avs while scoring twice with a -2 rating in the five-game loss.
Elsewhere out West:
- The Golden Knights won’t get defenseman Nicolas Hague back for Game 7 against the Stars tomorrow, head coach Bruce Cassidy said (via The Athletic’s Jesse Granger). The bottom-pairing fixture sustained a lower-body injury in Game 1 and hasn’t yet returned to practice. Hague, 25, also missed eight games with a lower-body injury early in the season. He finished the regular season with two goals, 10 assists, 12 points and a -5 rating in 73 games while averaging 18:33 per contest.
- Avalanche depth winger Joel Kiviranta is working his way back to full health while Colorado awaits the winner of tomorrow’s Dallas/Vegas game. He returned to practice yesterday for the first time since sustaining an undisclosed injury in Game 3 against Winnipeg, Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal reports. He had one assist before exiting their first-round win, averaging 10:14 per game with a +2 rating.
Auston Matthews Returns, Joseph Woll Out For Game 7
6:41 p.m.: Woll is indeed out for Game 7 due to an undisclosed injury he sustained in Game 6, the team confirmed. Samsonov will start as the Leafs attempt to win three straight and advance to the second round. Matthews was cleared to play today and will return, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reports.
5:38 p.m.: The Maple Leafs may be getting generational goal-scorer Auston Matthews back in the lineup for tonight’s Game 7 against the Bruins, as he took morning skate and arrived at the arena with the team’s starters, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. It’s not all good news for Toronto, though, as netminder Joseph Woll may be dealing with an undisclosed ailment and is now questionable after allowing a combined two goals in the Leafs’ Games 5 and 6 wins, per Friedman. Ilya Samsonov would get the start if he’s unable to go; his first since Game 4.
Matthews has not played since the second period of Toronto’s Game 4 loss due to a combination of illness and an undisclosed injury. The Leafs have managed to extend their series without their 69-goal man, winning in overtime on the road in Game 5 and holding on for a 2-1 win in Game 6 thanks to two goals from William Nylander.
While their game on both sides of the puck has undoubtedly improved after going down 3-1 in the series, Woll’s goaltending is the primary reason the Leafs have reached Game 7. The 25-year-old entered the series in the third period of Game 4, relieving Samsonov after he’d allowed three goals on 17 shots. He’s been incredible since, stopping 54 of 56 shots faced across seven periods plus Game 5’s brief overtime. That’s good enough for a .964 SV%, 0.86 GAA and 4.3 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. Woll was 0.1 seconds away from a shutout in Game 6, but a Morgan Geekie shot crossed the goal line just before time expired.
It’s hard to blame Samsonov entirely for the Leafs’ three losses in the series, especially with Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman and his .947 SV% at the other end. But after an inconsistent regular season that ended on a high note, Samsonov has been decidedly below average with a .883 SV%, 3.31 GAA and -1.8 goals saved above expected in the series. Only the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin (-2.4 GSAx) and the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck (-5.0 GSAx) have cumulatively allowed more rubber below league average given the shot quality they’ve faced.
If Matthews is able to return, there’s no indication he’ll be at 100%. With Toronto’s new-look first line of Max Domi centering Tyler Bertuzzi and Mitch Marner posting better results in the series than Matthews with Bertuzzi and Domi on his wings, he may slot lower in the lineup than usual. While he may not have his normal impact at even strength, Matthews will be an important factor in jumpstarting Toronto’s dreadful power play, which has gone just 1 for 20 (5.0%) in the series. Only the Kings, who failed to convert on their 12 power play opportunities against the Oilers, have fared worse.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Kings Reassign Aaron Dell
The Kings are trimming their roster after being eliminated in the first round in five games by the Oilers, returning depth goalie Aaron Dell to AHL Ontario today.
Dell, 34, didn’t suit up for the Kings this season after they signed him to a one-year, two-way contract on March 4. The veteran of seven NHL seasons and 130 games last played in the NHL with the Sharks in February 2023.
The Alberta native reached unrestricted free agency last summer after not being re-signed by San Jose but didn’t sign any NHL offers. He participated in training camp on a PTO with the Blue Jackets but failed to make the team and was released from his tryout without signing an NHL or AHL agreement. Dell later landed on a PTO with the Hurricanes later in the season as they were dealing with the beginning of the long-term absence of starter Frederik Andersen, but didn’t get a contract out of that stint, either.
Dell’s first non-exhibition action of the 2023-24 season came on the international stage, suiting up for Team Canada at the Spengler Cup in late December. There, he posted a .906 SV% and a 2-2-0 record in four games. Upon returning, he landed an AHL contract with Ontario, which later turned into an NHL agreement with the Kings so they could add him to the roster as needed for injury insurance. In 12 games with Ontario this season, the veteran showed he still had what it takes to play at the professional level with a strong .914 SV% and 2.57 GAA in 12 appearances, compiling one shutout and a 7-4-1 record.
Dell will again become a UFA this summer and look to land another NHL contract. He is likely to serve as a club’s third or fourth-string netminder. He hasn’t been a full-time NHL option since starting 30 games and making three relief appearances for the Sharks in 2019-20.
Hurricanes Place Alexander Pashin On Unconditional Waivers
Right wing prospect Alexander Pashin was placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination by the Hurricanes today, the team’s Walt Ruff reports.
Carolina selected Pashin, now 21, in the seventh round of the 2020 draft and signed him to a three-year entry-level contract in May 2022. The Russian forward came to North America immediately, spending 2022-23 with AHL Chicago where he recorded four goals, 10 points and a -12 rating in 47 games. It was a difficult adjustment for the agile but undersized winger, who had put up strong numbers in the junior and second-tier professional ranks in Russia but couldn’t break through a deep forward prospect pool in Carolina.
Without an affiliation agreement in place with Chicago this season, the Hurricanes loaned Pashin to Spartak Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League for the 2023-24 season. He provided solid depth scoring in a depth role there, posting 10 goals and nine assists in 60 games with a +3 rating. He was one of nine double-digit goal-scorers on Spartak’s roster and finished tied for 11th on the club in points. Spartak was eliminated in the Western Conference Quarterfinals of the KHL postseason, falling to eventual champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
Prior to coming to North America in 2022, Pashin logged his first full professional season with Toros Neftekamsk of the second-tier VHL. In 34 appearances for them in 2021-22, he was among their top scorers with 17 goals and 30 points.
If Pashin clears waivers tomorrow, he will become an unrestricted free agent and is free to sign with any NHL, AHL or overseas club. With his 5’8″, 154-lb frame already proving difficult in his adjustment to the AHL a season ago, he’s unlikely to receive any NHL offers and will likely remain in Russia. The move opens up an additional contract slot for the Canes this summer, who now only have 25 of the maximum 50 standard player contracts signed for 2024-25.
Islanders Notes: Lamoriello, Roy, Mayfield, Bortuzzo, Martin, Clutterbuck
The Islanders held their end-of-season press availability today after being eliminated in the first round in five games at the hands of the Hurricanes. Most notably, general manager Lou Lamoriello confirmed that he and Patrick Roy will be back in their respective roles with the team for 2024-25 (via NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner).
However, Lamoriello said (via Rosner) that no decision has been made other than retaining Roy on next year’s coaching staff. That leaves Benoit Desrosiers’s future, who was appointed by the Isles midseason after Roy was hired to replace the fired Lane Lambert and had worked with Roy on the bench for the QMJHL’s Québec Remparts for the past few years, up in the air. It’s also now unclear if assistants Doug Houda and John MacLean, as well as goaltending coach Piero Greco, will return to the club for 2024-25.
There will be immense pressure on the 81-year-old Lamoriello this offseason to add talent to a solid-structured existing core. The Isles are dangerously approaching permanent mediocrity territory, making the postseason in back-to-back seasons but never coming close to winning a round since their third-round appearance in 2021. He’s been at the helm of the Islanders since 2018, during which time the team has only missed the playoffs once (2022).
Other notable tidbits from the Isles today:
- After undergoing season-ending surgery in late March, defenseman Scott Mayfield expects to be ready to go for training camp in the fall, he said today (via The Athletic’s Arthur Staple). The 31-year-old revealed he played through a broken ankle that he sustained in the season opener for most of the year, finally getting shut down and placed on LTIR with around six weeks left in the campaign. Playing in 41 games this season, he was limited to five assists and a -7 rating while averaging 18:46 per game, his lowest usage in five years. After inking him to a seven-year, $24.5MM extension last summer, the Islanders are hoping theirs and Mayfield’s decision to put off surgery doesn’t inhibit his skating ability long-term.
- Pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Robert Bortuzzo would like to stay on Long Island this summer but doesn’t yet have an indication of where extension talks will go, he said today (via Newsday’s Andrew Gross). Lamoriello acquired the veteran shutdown blue liner from the Blues in early December for a 2024 seventh-round pick. After finishing the regular season with no points and a -2 rating in 23 games while averaging 14:19 per night, the 35-year-old isn’t in a position to earn a raise on his previous $950K AAV.
- The Isles have a pair of much longer-tenured pending UFAs in fourth-line fixtures Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck. There had been existing speculation that the aging grinders would consider retirement, but they each said today that won’t be the case (Twitter/X links). Martin’s spent 13 of his 15 NHL seasons in an Islanders uniform, totaling 73 goals and 155 points in 823 games. The 34-year-old played only 9:19 per game this season, his lowest average as an Islander, and registered four goals and eight points in 57 games. Clutterbuck, 36, has appeared in 718 games with the team since 2013 but played in all 82 games this season for the first time, posting seven goals and 19 points while averaging 11:53 per game.
Penguins Part Ways With Associate Coach Todd Reirden
The Penguins are not bringing back associate coach Todd Reirden next season, the club announced Friday. He was on an expiring contract.
Reirden has served on head coach Mike Sullivan‘s staff for the past four seasons, overseeing their power play and defense corps. The Penguins hired the former NHL defenseman in the 2020 offseason after he was let go as head coach of the Capitals, a role he held for two years.
Over Reirden’s tenure, the Penguins have had one of the most consistently underwhelming man-advantage units in the league. Their 19.9% power play success rate over the past four seasons ranks 18th in the NHL, surprisingly low considering the talent level of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin that they’ve had at their disposal nearly the entire time. General manager Kyle Dubas gave Reirden a new toy to play with when he acquired elite offensive blue-liner Erik Karlsson this summer, but it somehow had a worse effect. Pittsburgh’s power play clicked at just 15.3% this season, only ahead of the Blue Jackets (15.1%) and Flyers (12.2%).
The Penguins were middle-of-the-pack defensively, allowing 30.2 shots per game, only 0.4 more than the league median this season. The pairing of Karlsson and Marcus Pettersson had a strong campaign at even strength, controlling 54.7% of expected goals when deployed together, per MoneyPuck. But free-agent signing Ryan Graves struggled in his top-four role, posting worse results than Pettersson when utilized with both Karlsson and Letang.
Pittsburgh finished just three points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference this season. Even an average power play and slightly improved results from Graves likely would have given them the two additional wins they needed to return to postseason action.
Reirden becomes a free agent, and while he likely won’t be under consideration for any head coaching vacancies, could still land on an NHL bench somewhere next season. Before assuming the head coaching job with Washington in 2018, he’d spent four years there as an associate and assistant coach under Barry Trotz. His first NHL gig came with the Penguins in 2008, serving as the assistant and head coach for AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for three years before spending another four as an NHL assistant.
NHL Announces Finalists For 2024 Jack Adams Award
The Jets’ Rick Bowness, the Predators’ Andrew Brunette and the Canucks’ Rick Tocchet are this year’s finalists for the Jack Adams Award, the league announced Friday. The honor is given to the head coach who “contributed the most to his team’s success.”
We’ll have a first-time winner for the fifth year in a row. Last year’s recipient was Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery, who led Boston to the best regular season in league history (.823 points percentage) since the Canadiens’ 60-8-12 (.825 points percentage) run in 1976-77.
Bowness, 69, is by far the most veteran option among the finalists. A good portion of his 30-plus years behind an NHL bench has been spent as an assistant, but he’s still managed 310 wins and 803 regular-season games coached as a head coach. After guiding Winnipeg to only its second 100-point season in franchise history with a 52-24-6 record, Bowness is the first Jets/Thrashers coach to be nominated for the Jack Adams in franchise history.
Brunette is also gunning for his first Coach of the Year honor despite holding less than two full seasons as a head coach. Both have yielded great results, though, guiding the Panthers to the 2022 Presidents’ Trophy after taking over for John Quenneville early in the season. He was back in a head coaching role this year, taking over behind the Predators’ bench and guiding what many viewed to be a fringe team to a 99-point season, including a franchise-record 18-game point streak from Feb. 17 to March 26. Nashville’s 47-30-5 record placed them in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, returning to postseason play after missing out in 2023.
The 60-year-old Tocchet rightfully gets a nod here in his first full season as head coach of the Canucks. Vancouver was arguably the league’s most surprising team this season, especially considering their level of dominance. They weren’t just a playoff team like some had hoped for at the beginning of the year – they were one of the best in the league for long stretches, finishing with a 50-23-9 record and their first division title in 11 years. The Canucks’ 109 points were their most since hitting 111 in the 2011-12 campaign.