Men’s Ice Hockey at the Olympic Games will start this Wednesday and we can’t wait! With over 60 players from this season of the Champions Hockey League set to feature for their national teams over the course of the next 11 days, here’s a breakdown of who you could see playing and for which nations.
Germany
Team Germany has called up 18 CHL players for the Olympics – the most out of all participating nations!
Chief among them are Danny aus den Birken, Yasin Ehliz and Patrik Hager from Red Bull Munich, Eisbären Berlin’s Jonas Müller, Marcel Noebels and Leo Pföderl, Adler Mannheim’s Matthias Plachta and David Wolf who all have Olympic silver medals from 2018 when they guided Team Germany to their best ever Olympic result in ice hockey.
In total, Munich have five players in Team Germany's line-up, including current CHL top scorer Frederik Tiffels, which is one less than Mannheim who have six representatives. Next in line are Berlin with four, followed by a duo of Skellefteå AIK players - Tom Kühnhackl and Stefan Loibl, and the Växjö Lakers’ Tobias Rieder.
Finland & Latvia
Team Finland and Team Latvia feature one CHL player each. For Finland, it’s new Rögle Ängelholm signing Valtteri Kemiläinen, who could make his CHL debut for his new club during the 2021/22 Final on March 1.
For Latvia, it’s netminder Janis Kalnins who backstopped four CHL games for Växjö this season.
USA & Canada
Team USA have also called up only one CHL player to their Olympic Games roster, whereas Team Canada have relied on their European players more, with six making the 25-man shortlist.
23-year-old talented netminder Strauss Mann featured in two games for Skellefteå this season and is one of three goaltenders in the Team USA line-up.
Whilst Munich's Ben Street, Rögle's Adam Tambellini, Frölunda Gothenburg's netminder Matthew Tomkins and more will play under the Canadian flag in China.
The Canadian roster also features HC Lugano's Daniel Carr, who has 3G, 4A in five CHL games this season and Fribourg-Gottéron's David Desharnais, who has averaged a point per game this season.
Switzerland
Team Switzerland have filled their roster entirely with players from their domestic league, 15 of which have played in the CHL this season.
EV Zug, Lugano and ZSC Lions Zurich all have four players each on the roster, whilst Fribourg-Gottéron have three.
The line-up includes infamous names such as Zug's Grégory Hofmann and Leonardo Genoni, Lugano's Santeri Alatalo and Fribourg's Killian Mottet, who was named in the CHL's Team of the Group Stage.
Czechia & Slovakia
Czechia and Slovakia both feature six CHL players each on their national team rosters for the Olympics.
Zug's Jan Kovář, a duo of Sparta Prague players - Michal Řepík and Vladimír Sobotka, a duo of Frölunda players - Radan Lenc and Michael Špaček and Oceláři Třinec's Tomáš Kundrátek are all preparing with Team Czechia in China at this very moment.
For neighboring Slovakia, three Třinec players are on their roster - Martin Marinčin, Marko Daňo and Miloš Roman. They are joined by BK Mladá Boleslav player Miloš Kelemen, TPS Turku's Juraj Slafkovský and Slovan Bratislava's Samuel Takáč.
Sweden
Team Sweden have nine CHL players among their ranks - Frölunda's Christian Folin and Max Friberg both made the cut, as did a duo of Zug players, Carl Klingberg and Anton Lander.
They are joined by Skellefteå's Jonathan Pudas, Växjö's Pontus Holmberg, Rögle's Dennis Everberg from the SHL and ZSC Lions' Marcus Krüger and Fribourg-Gottéron's Daniel Brodin from the Swiss NL.
Russia & China
Russia and China are the only two nations that don't have a CHL representative on their roster
So that's all 63 CHLers who'll be playing in the Olympic Games, but is anybody curoious which clubs have the most players in Beijing?
EV Zug - seven players
Red Bull Munich - six players
ZSC Lions Zurich - six players
Adler Mannheim - six players
Frölunda Gothenburg - five players
HC Lugano - five players
Fribourg-Gottéron - five players