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106 AHL alumni named to 2006 Olympic rosters

December 22, 2005 - American Hockey League (AHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. ... With the 2006 Olympic Winter Games just seven weeks away, 106 American Hockey League graduates have been selected to represent their countries in Turin, Italy.

The 12 participating nations had until today to announce their 23-man rosters; all but Russia's had been made public as of this afternoon.

Participants include 22 former American Hockey League All-Stars, among them 2005 Eddie Shore Award winner Niklas Kronwall (Sweden), 2005 Calder Cup champions Joni Pitkanen (Finland) and Dennis Seidenberg (Germany) and NHL All-Stars Martin St. Louis (Canada), Zdeno Chara (Slovakia), Pavol Demitra (Slovakia), Tomas Vokoun (Czech Republic) and Mattias Norstrom (Sweden). Other former AHL All-Stars taking part in the tournament include Rick DiPietro (USA), Miikka Kiprusoff (Finland), Kari Lehtonen (Finland) and Ladislav Nagy (Slovakia).

Olympians Olaf Kolzig (Germany), John Grahame (USA), Antti Laaksonen (Finland), Milan Hnilicka (Czech Republic), Tony Tuzzolino (Italy) and Bob Nardella (Italy) are also former Calder Cup champions.

The United States and Slovakia each boast 15 AHL graduates, followed by the Czech Republic (13), Finland (12) and Germany (10). The complete list of alumni follows this release.

Kazakhstan goaltender Vitaly Kolesnik posted a 10-8-0 record in 19 games for the AHL's Lowell Lock Monsters this season; he has spent the last two weeks on NHL recall to the Colorado Avalanche. Germany's Michael Hackert appeared in 16 games this year with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

AHL experience can be found behind the benches as well, as former AHL All-Star, Calder Cup champion and coach of the year Peter Laviolette serves as head coach for the United States, assisted by AHL alumni Mike Sullivan and Keith Allain. Former AHL head coach Pat Quinn leads the Canadians, with assistance from AHL grads Jacques Martin and Marc Habscheid.

Other notable AHL alumni at the 2006 Olympics will include Martin Brodeur (Canada), Brian Gionta (USA), Doug Weight (USA), Jozef Stumpel (Slovakia), Martin Rucinsky (Czech Republic), Jochen Hecht (Germany), Kenny Jonsson (Sweden) and David Aebischer (Switzerland).

AHL Alumni on 2006 Olympic Rosters (as of 12/22/05)

Canada (8)
Martin Brodeur, G
Shane Doan, F
Kris Draper, F
Adam Foote, D
Roberto Luongo, G
Robyn Regehr, D
*Martin St. Louis, F
Ryan Smyth, F

Czech Republic (13)
Jan Bulis, F
Martin Erat, F
Milan Hnilicka, G
Frantisek Kaberle, D
Tomas Kaberle, D
Filip Kuba, D
Pavel Kubina, F
Marek Malik, D
*Vaclav Prospal, F
Martin Rucinsky, F
Jaroslav Spacek, D
*Tomas Vokoun, G
David Vyborny, F

Finland (12)
Jukka Hentunen, F
Olli Jokinen, F
Niko Kapanen, F
Sami Kapanen, F
*Miikka Kiprusoff, G
*Mikko Koivu, F
Antti Laaksonen, F
*Kari Lehtonen, G
Antti Miettinen, F
Ville Peltonen, F
*Joni Pitkanen, D
Jarkko Ruutu, F

Germany (10)
Jan Benda, F
*Christian Ehrhoff, D
Marcel Goc, F
Sascha Goc, D
Michael Hackert, F
Jochen Hecht, F
Olaf Kolzig, G
Christoph Schubert, D
*Dennis Seidenberg, D
Stefan Ustorf, F

Italy (7)
Mario Chitaroni, F
Jason Cirone, F
Tony Iob, F
Jason Muzzatti, G
Bob Nardella, D
John Parco, F
Tony Tuzzolino, F

Kazakhstan (5)
Nikolai Antropov, F
Vitaly Kolesnik, G
Konstantin Shafronov, F
Andrei Troschinsky, F
*Vitali Yeremeyev, G

Latvia (6)
Aigars Cipruss, F
Arturs Irbe, G
Grigori Panteleev, F
Arvid Rekis, D
Agris Saviels, D
*Herbert Vasiljevs, F

Russia (TBA)

Slovakia (15)
*Lubos Bartecko, F
Peter Budaj, G
*Zdeno Chara, D
*Pavol Demitra, F
*Michal Handzus, F
Marcel Hossa, F
Milan Jurcina, D
Jan Lasak, G
*Ladislav Nagy, F
Miroslav Satan, F
Martin Strbak, D
Jozef Stumpel, F
*Radoslav Suchy, D
Marek Svatos, F
Richard Zednik, F

Sweden (8)
Christian Backman, D
Kenny Jonsson, D
Mika Hannula, F
*Niklas Kronwall, D
*Mattias Norstrom, D
Samuel Pahlsson, F
Mikael Samuelsson, F
Mikael Tellqvist, G

Switzerland (7)
David Aebischer, G
Goran Bezina, D
Paul DiPietro, F
Martin Gerber, G
Mark Streit, D
*Julien Vauclair, D
Thomas Ziegler, F

United States (15)
Jason Blake, F
Craig Conroy, F
*Rick DiPietro, G
*Robert Esche, G
Brian Gionta, F
John Grahame, G
Bill Guerin, F
Mike Knuble, F
Jordan Leopold, D
John-Michael Liles, D
Aaron Miller, D
Mark Parrish, F
Brian Rolston, F
Mathieu Schneider, D
Doug Weight, F

*indicates former AHL All-Star

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