Colorado Avalanche Players to Represent their Countries at IIHF Worlds 2018

The Colorado Avalanche have three players representing their countries at the World Championships with another three who turned invitations down due to injury.

The Colorado Avalanche’s season is done. As happens every year, some of the players leave to represent their countries at the IIHF Worlds Championship.

It’s bittersweet for us Avs fans. We get a little more hockey from some of our players, but it also means Colorado didn’t make a deep playoff run. Of course, we can console ourselves this year with the fact that the Avalanche did, at least, make the playoffs.

Three players are representing their countries this year. And additional three were invited but declined due to injuries.

The three representing:

Tyson Jost, Canada
Sven Andrighetto, Switzerland
Mikko Rantanen, Finland

The three who declined:

What’s noteworthy about those two lists is that Rantanen is on the first, not the second. It was speculated during the playoffs that his poor performance was due to injury, and he all but confirmed it after Game 6. However, it appears that, two weeks later, he’s ready to play hockey again.

Of the three who declined, I hadn’t heard of any injuries to them. However, all three played pretty hard in the playoffs. Injury might explain their Game 6 performances — especially Landeskog’s.

The 20-year-old Tyson Jost has represented Canada four times:

2014: World Under-17 Hockey Challenge — Canada White, 5th place
2015: Hlinka Gretzky Cup — Gold
2016: World Junior Championship U-18 — 4th place*
2017: World Junior Championship — Silver

*Jost had an impressive 15 points (6 goals, 9 assists) in this seven-game tournament. He was voted the best forward at the tournament and made the All Star Team.

The 25-year-old Sven Andrighetto has represented Switzerland five times:

2010: World Junior Championship U-18 — 5th place
2011: World Junior Championship U-18 — 7th place
2012: World Junior Championship — 8th place
2013: World Junior Championship — 6th place
2016: World Championship — 11th place

The 21-year-old Mikko Rantanen has represented Finland an impressive seven times:

2013: World Under-17 Hockey Challenge — 7th place
2013: Hlinka Gretzky Cup — 5th place
2014: World Junior Championship U-18 — 6th place
2015: World Junior Championship — 7th place
2016: World Junior Championship — Gold
2016: World Championship — Silver
2017: World Championship — 4th place

In the 2017 World Championships, Rantanen had four goals and six assists.

More from Mile High Sticking

The 25-year-old Gabriel Landeskog has represented Sweden seven times:

2009: World Junior Championship U-18 — 5th place
2011: World Junior Championship — 4th place
2012: World Championship — 6th place
2013: World Championship — Gold
2014: Olympic Games — Silver
2016: World Cup of Hockey — Bronze
2017: World Championship — Gold

The 26-year-old Patrik Nemeth has represented Sweden three times:

2010: World Junior Championship U-18 — Silver
2011: World Junior Championship — 4th place
2012: World Junior Championship — Gold

The 23-year-old Nikita Zadorov has represented Russia four times:

2012: World Under-17 Hockey Challenge — Gold
2012: Hlinka Gretzky Cup — 5th place
2012: World Junior Championship U-18 — 5th place
2014: World Junior Championship — Bronze

According to Mile High Sports, Zadorov and Nemeth are undergoing surgery, Zadorov for a shoulder injury. Landeskog suffered a stomach injury in Game 3.

Last year, Nathan MacKinnon and Tyson Barrie represented Canada at the IIHF Worlds. While Barrie sustained some weird wrestling injury, MacKinnon won silver with Canada. He has a gold medal from their 2015 World Championship. It’s not clear why he’s not going this year — I’m guessing he indicated he didn’t want to go.

Next: Avs Report Card vs Stars

The action starts in Denmark on Friday, May 4th and will continue through to May 20.

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