Mark Streit is heading to Sochi.
The Flyers defenseman — perhaps the best Swiss-born player in NHL history — will represent his country for a third time at the Winter Olympics. He previously pulled on his national colors at the 2006 Winter Games in Torino and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. He’s also represented Switzerland 12 times at the IIHF World Championships, which is what happens when you’ve played most of your career for a non-playoff NHL team.
Streit is one of just eight current NHL players on the roster. Former Flyers draft pick Luca Sbisa — who was traded to Anaheim in 2009 for Chris Pronger — is listed as an alternate. Here’s the full Swiss roster, via Swiss Hockey News:
Netminders: Reto Berra (Calgary Flames), Jonas Hiller (Anaheim Ducks), Tobias Stephan (Genève-Servette HC)
Defensemen: Severin Blindenbacher (ZSC Lions), Rafael Diaz (Montréal Canadiens), Philippe Furrer (SC Bern), Roman Josi (Nashville Predators), Mathias Seger (Captain, ZSC Lions), Mark Streit (Philadelphia Flyers), Julien Vauclair (HC Lugano), Yannick Weber (Vancouver Canucks)
Forwards: Andres Ambühl (HC Davos), Matthias Bieber (Kloten Flyers), Simon Bodenmann (Kloten Flyers), Damien Brunner (New Jersey Devils), Luca Cunti (ZSC Lions), Ryan Gardner (SC Bern), Denis Hollenstein (Genève-Servette HC), Simon Moser (Milwaukee Admirals), Nino Niederreiter (Minnesota Wild), Martin Plüss (SC Bern), Kevin Romy (Genève-Servette HC), Reto Suri (EV Zug), Morris Trachsler (ZSC Lions), Roman Wick (ZSC Lions)
No Flyers were named to USA’s roster last week. Flyers rookie Michael Raffl was named to Austria’s Olympic team last week. Canada will announce its roster on Tuesday, and we’re expecting Claude Giroux will be on it. Kimmo Timonen (Finland), Nicklas Grossmann (Sweden), Jakub Voracek (Czech Republic) and Andrej Meszaros (Slovakia) are the other Flyers Olympic hopefuls.
