Penguin-related primer for the 2024 World Championships

A few Pittsburgh connections to the tournament

The 2024 IIHF World Championship kicks off tomorrow and runs through May 26th over in Czechia. There are some connections to the Penguins, so let’s take a peek.

The 16 teams are broken into two groups.

In Canada, all the games will be on TSN. In America, NHL Network has coverage of all the Team USA games and then the quarters/semis/finals.

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Team Sweden

Marcus Pettersson and Erik Karlsson will be playing for Tre Kronors. Karlsson is even serving as the team’s captain.

Rickard Rakell was asked to play, but declined due to injury (he was playing with a shoulder brace for much of the season and will instead use the summer to heal up and get ready for next season). Former Penguin prospects Lukas Bengtsson and Filip Gustavsson will also be on the team.

Team Canada

Michael Bunting will be there — and even played on a first line in a tune-up game with Jared McCann and Connor Bedard, which sure is a sentence packed with action right there. Kyle Dubas is serving as an assistant GM.

Former Pittsburgh players Brandon Tanev and Jamie Oleksiak are also repping their country this time around. If Elite Prospects can be trusted, this tournament will be the first time Tanev has ever been able to play for his country (he started out undrafted and well off the radar for junior-aged players) so that is especially sweet for him to get the opportunity to play for a team and country like Canada.

(Note that from this lineup, Macklin Celebrini and Adam Fantilli have gone back home and will be replaced by playoff eliminations P-L Dubois, Brandon Hagel and Nick Paul.

Team USA

Alex Nedeljkovic was a late add to the lineup below for the Americans. Former Penguin Jeff Petry is on the team, which is coached by former WBS’er John Hynes. Current Penguin assistant Ty Hennes is on the bench as an assistant coach.

Team Finland

Lowkey, the Pens and Finns have a lot of connections. For active players, both Jesse Puljujarvi and Valtteri Puustinen will play in this tournament — two of only four current NHL players that have been brought to the tournament for them this year.

For former players, there’s good ol’ Olli Maatta and the less revered Mikael Granlund out there. Former Penguin prospect Emil Larmi will be one of the goalies.

Team Czechia

The hosts have some Penguin connections. No Jaromir Jagr (who retired from international play) but a Penguin player from that era in Petr Nedved is their GM.

The current roster has former Penguin Jan Rutta and very brief AHL Penguin from this year in Libor Hajek. Hajek, you may or may not remember, was a Pittsburgh PTO in training camp, no where close to making the NHL club and signed an AHL contract in Wilkes. He only lasted 11 games before the contract was terminated and he went on back home to Czech to finish out the season. All well and good, but apparently he played really, really well and may be signing an NHL deal this summer. Did NOT expect that story to pick back up with a lot of interest, but good on him.

Team Latvia

Penguin minor league forward and prospect Raivis Ansons got the call to play for his country. The 22-year old completed his second pro season in 2023-24, splitting time between Wilkes-Barre and Wheeling. Doesn’t look like much of a top NHL prospect at this point, but someone to watch out for nonetheless.