Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
American Hockey League talent will again head to Switzerland this year to represent Canada at the Spengler Cup, the world’s oldest club tournament.
Held each December in Davos, a picturesque ski town in the Alps, Swiss team HC Davos hosts the tournament for the 96th time beginning on Thursday. Each year Hockey Canada also sends a team to the tournament that always features a heavy presence of AHL names present and past. Along with HC Davos and Team Canada, this year’s six-team invitational tournament will also feature European club teams HC Dynamo Pardubice (Czechia), HC Fribourg-Gottéron (Switzerland), Kärpät Oulu (Finland) and the Straubing Tigers (Germany).
Canada’s tournament schedule begins on Boxing Day against host HC Davos at 2:15 p.m. ET. Fans in Canada can watch the action on TSN while United States viewers can tune in via the tournament’s YouTube channel.
Calgary Wranglers general manager Brad Pascall is back again for the second year in a row as Canada’s co-general manager, joined by Joe Thornton and Hnat Domenichelli. Veteran NHL head coach Gerard Gallant will be behind Canada’s bench.
To be selected to come to Davos to wear the Canadian jersey is a much-coveted honor, and 13 players – including three AHL captains – will represent Canada this year. Texas Stars fixture Curtis McKenzie, who has reached 20 or more goals in a season six times in his AHL career, will represent Canada as a pro for the first time. So will Logan Shaw of the Toronto Marlies. The past week has been a busy one for Shaw, who signed a two-year contract extension with the Marlies last Friday. Rounding out the trio is Brett Seney from the Rockford IceHogs.
In net will be Colten Ellis of the Springfield Thunderbirds as well as Dylan Ferguson from the Iowa Wild. Ellis has been excellent for the Thunderbirds so far, going 8-5-2 with a 2.80 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage. Long-time AHL goaltender Antoine Bibeau, who now plays in Finland, will complete the goaltending group. He spent parts of nine seasons in the AHL and played 225 games.
The Canadian blue line has a strong AHL flavor with Layton Ahac (Abbotsford), Jonathan Aspirot (Calgary), Madison Bowey (Cleveland), Noel Hoefenmayer (Laval), Mac Hollowell (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton), and Colton White (Utica) on the roster.
Canada’s roster also features several recent AHL alumni now playing among several teams in Switzerland’s National League, including forwards Daniel Carr, Tanner Fritz, Josh Jooris and Philippe Maillet. Carr was an AHL First All-Star Team member with the Chicago Wolves in 2018-19 and also won the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL’s most valuable player. Forward Philip-Michael Devos, a 2012 Calder Cup champion with the Norfolk Admirals, is also on the Canadian roster.
Familiar AHL names also dot the rosters of the other teams that will be in Davos. The Fribourg-Gotteron roster has T.J. Brennan, who played 679 AHL games and twice won the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL’s top defenseman. Jakub Zboril, a key part of the Cleveland Monsters going to the Eastern Conference Finals last spring, is with Pardubice.
The Spengler Cup is not AHL players’ only destination for international competition this week. Seven top prospects will go to Ottawa to participate in the prestigious IIHF World Junior Championship. Chicago Wolves forwards Bradly Nadeau (Canada) and Felix Unger Sorum (Sweden) will play for gold, as will Rochester Americans forwards Konsta Helenius (Finland) and Anton Wahlberg (Sweden).
Czechia will feature defenseman Jakub Dvorak (Ontario) and forward Eduard Sale (Coachella Valley). Forward Dalibor Dvorsky, Springfield’s leading scorer with 11 goals and 21 points this season, will be on Slovakia’s roster.
The 2025 World Junior Championship can be seen on TSN and RDS in Canada, and on NHL Network in the U.S.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.