It's the 90th edition of the Spengler Cup. This years' competitors are: HC Davos, Team Canada, HC Lugano, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, Dinamo Minsk, and Mountfield HK.
Davos, Team Canada, Lugano and Avtomobilist all participated last year, and Team Canada won the cup. Dinamo Minsk are back after winning the tournament in 2009. Mountfield HK of the Czech Extraliga appear for the first time.
Avtomobilist and Dinamo are both members of the KHL, and Davos and Lugano are both in the Swiss NLA. The Spengler Cup starts out with a group stage, with one KHL team and one NLA team is each group, so that the chances of league rivals meeting are reduced. It can happen in the playoff stage, but has happened only once since the six-team format was introduced in 2010. Ufa and Zagreb (both KHL) met in the 2014 quarter-finals.
Team Canada's roster is posted here. Eleven play for NLA clubs in Switzerland. Six play for Medvescak Zagreb, plus one from another KHL club. Two are part of the Hockey Canada program. And there's one each from the AHL, Finnish Liiga, Austrian EBEL, the ECHL, and a Canadian university. The team is coached by Luke Richardson.
Avtomobilist is currently fifth in the Kharlamov Division. There are no Canadians.
Dinamo Minsk is second in the Bobrov. Canadians: Kevin Lalande, Ben Scrivens, Marc-André Gragnani, Matt Ellison, Rob Klinkhammer, Charles Linglet.
Mountfield HK from Hradec Králové is sixth in the Czech Extraliga. Alexandre Picard is the only Canadian on the squad.
Lugano is sixth in the NLA. Canadians: Ryan Wilson, Ryan Gardner, Maxim Lapierre. Head coach: Doug Shedden.
Davos is ninth in the NLA. The only Canadian there is Stefano Giliati.
Davos and Lugano also appeared in this year's Champions Hockey League. That tournament also started with a group stage where clubs from the same country were separated and spread out over the groups. The only time that Davos and Lugano might have met was the final. Clubs that Davos played in the Champions Hockey League this year: Djurgårdens IF, Dragons de Rouen, and Linköpings HC who knocked them out of the Round of 32. Lugano played Tappara, Adler Mannheim, HC Plzeň, and ZSC Lions who knocked them out of the Round of 16. The KHL doesn't participate in the Champions Hockey League.
[Team Canada beat Lugano 5 - 2 in the final.]
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