Canada Expected to Pull Out of Spengler Cup
KEYSTONE/Gian Ehrenzeller
The most successful team in Spengler Cup history will sit the tournament out due to COVID-19 concerns.
Canada will skip hockey's oldest invitational tournament, set to take place in Davos, Switzerland from Dec. 26-31. Since 2015, Canada has won the championship in four of the five events, with its lone loss coming in the shootout against KalPa Kuopio in 2018.
Canada has the most championships with 16. Davos, the tournament host, has 15.
The team, built of players playing outside the NHL, had special importance this year with the NHL expected to back out of the Olympics. The Spengler Cup could have been used for Canada to evaluate backup talent for the Olympics, just like they did with the Channel One Cup in Russia last week.
The official Spengler Cup Twitter account posted a short statement on Sunday evening, saying more information about the tournament will be coming on Monday.
