Last year’s Swiss team at the IIHF World Championship in Czechia had several high-profile NHLers, including defenseman Roman Josi and Jonas Siegenthaler and forwards Kevin Fiala, Nico Hischier, Philipp Kurashev and Nino Niederreiter. So far, none of those players have confirmed their participation this year although some of them are already available.

In this final leg of this year’s Euro Hockey Tour, the Swiss are bringing a roster composed almost entirely of domestic National League players. That’s in contrast with the roster of Sweden, the team they will face Thursday night in Kloten, which has 11 active NHLers.

11 NHLers On Swedish Roster At Last Pre-Worlds Tourney The NHL contingent on the Swedish national team has now risen to 11 as the team approaches its last tune-up before the IIHF World Championship, and that’s the Czech Hockey Games this weekend – the final leg of the 2024-25 Euro Hockey Tour.

This Swiss team does have National League MVP goalie Stéphane Charlin, defenseman Tim Berni and winger Simon Knak, whose NHL rights are owned by the Columbus Blue Jackets and Nashville Predators, respectively, 41-year-old Andres Ambühl, who has already announced he will retire at the end of this season, and five members of the reigning National League and Champions Hockey League winners, the ZSC Lions.

After Thursday’s game at home, the Swiss team travels to Brno, Czechia to play Finland on Saturday and the Czechs on Sunday, and then on to Herning, Denmark for the start of the World Championship next Friday.

Goaltenders: Sandro Aeschlimann (Davos), Stéphane Charlin (Langnau), Leonardo Genoni (Zug).

Defensemen: Tim Berni, Giancarlo Chanton, Roger Karrer (all Geneve-Servette), Michael Fora, Sven Jung (both Davos), Dean Kukan, Christian Marti (both ZSC Lions), Andrea Glauser (Lausanne), Romain Loeffel (Bern), Dario Wüthrich (Ambri-Piotta), Dominik Egli (Frölunda, SWE).

Forwards: Sven Andrighetto, Nicolas Baechler, Denis Malgin (all ZSC Lions), Christoph Bertschy, Sandro Schmid, Samuel Walser (all Fribourg-Gottéron), Andres Ambühl, Simon Knak (both Davos), Grégory Hofmann, Sven Senteler (both Zug), Ken Jäger, Damien Riat (Lausanne), Tyler Moy (Rapperswil-Jona), Fabian Ritzmann (Bern), Dario Rohrbach (Langnau).

Head Coach: Patrick Fischer.

Pastrnak Will Play For Czechs In Worlds, But Not This Weekend In Euro Hockey Tour Multiple Czech media outlets reported on Monday that David Pastrňák has finally <a href="https://isport.blesk.cz/clanek/hokej-reprezentace-ms-v-hokeji/461291/pastrnak-bude-hrat-na-ms-moc-se-tesim-potvrdila-ceska-hvezda-zatim-zustava-v-zamori.html">agreed to play for his home country in this year’s IIHF World Championship</a>. Czech national team GM<a href="https://www.hokej.cz/slegr-o-pastrnakovi-legendarni-hrac-potrebuje-prostor-co-klapka-z-calgary/5088542"> Jiří Šlégr confirmed the news</a> after the team’s practise.