10 Former Amerks To Compete In World Championships
Published on May 2, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Rochester Americans News Release
(Rochester, NY)... As the 2008 American Hockey League Calder Cup playoffs continue on, hockey's annual IIHF World Championships are set to begin tonight in Quebec City and Halifax. The preliminary rosters for the tournament feature 149 AHL graduates representing their countries and competing for medals, 10 of which are former Rochester Americans.
All 16 participating countries have at least one AHL alumnus on board, and the list includes 28 former AHL All-Stars, among them 2005 AHL MVP Jason Spezza (Canada), Martin St. Louis (Canada), Eric Staal (Canada), Patrik Elias (Czech Republic), Dmitri Kalinin (Russia), Karri Ramo (Finland), Mikko Koivu (Finland), Zach Parise (USA) and Drew Stafford (USA).
Twenty-one participants played in the AHL during the 2007-08 season, including Hershey's Sami Lepisto (Finland), Bridgeport's Frans Nielsen (Denmark), Houston's Morten Madsen (Denmark), Iowa's Marius Holtet (Norway), Providence's David Krejci (Czech Republic), Rochester's Andrej Sekera (Slovakia), Toronto's Anton Stralman (Sweden), Manchester's Erik Ersberg (Sweden), and Milwaukee's Janne Niskala and Antti Pihlstrom (Finland).
Other notable AHL alumni at the 2008 World Championships include Ryan Getzlaf (Canada), Cam Ward (Canada), Olli Jokinen (Finland), Cristobal Huet (France), Maxim Afinogenov (Russia), Martin Gerber (Switzerland), Jason Pominville (USA) and Tim Thomas (USA).
Rochester's alumni who will appear in the annual event features 10 players from four different countries, including Canada's Derek Roy, Russia's Maxim Afinogenov and Dmitri Kalinin, Slovakia's Andrej Sekera, Czech Republic's Alex Kotalik and Jiri Novotny, and the USA's Craig Anderson, David Booth, Jason Pominville and Drew Stafford.
AHL experience can be found behind the bench as well, where 1996 Calder Cup champion John Tortorella is serving as the United States' head coach. Before becoming the most prolific American-born coach in the National Hockey League, Tortorella guided the 1996 Amerks to their sixth Calder Cup title in the team's 52-year history.
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