Three Vancouver Canucks announce they’re joining Team Sweden

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom, alongisde forwards Loui Eriksson and Elias Pettersson have announced that they’re joining Team Sweden for the World Championships in Slovakia.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on which Vancouver Canucks players are going to be heading to the World Championships, and who isn’t. So far, the Canucks will have the most representation at the tournament in the form of their Swedish players.

Last year, Anders Nilsson joined a then 19-year-old Elias Pettersson on Team Sweden for the IIHF World Championships in Denmark. That Sweden team featured loads of NHL talent, including, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, John Klingberg, Mattias Ekholm, Filip Forsberg, Rickard Rakell, and Patric Hornqvist, among others.

The team was basically stacked, and played like it, too. Sweden went on to win the gold at last year’s tournament. For the second year in a row, the Canucks will have one of their goaltenders representing Sweden at the tournament. This year, in the form of Jacob Markstrom.

Markstrom is coming off a great personal season where he played some of the best hockey of his career and really solidified himself as the Canucks true number one starting goalie. Markstrom will be joined at the tournament by Canucks teammate Loui Eriksson.

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Despite his well-documented struggles in Vancouver, Eriksson has represented Sweden nine times in his career. In the past, Eriksson spent a good majority of time on a dominant line for the Swedes alongside Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Eriksson has played in four World Championship tournaments in the past, including back in 2013, when Sweden won gold, with the twins and Eriksson leading the way.

Eriksson will join Sweden at the World Championships — for the first time since that 2013 gold medal win — this year in Slovakia. Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund have both confirmed that they will not be representing their countries — Switzerland and Finland — at the tournament this year.

UPDATE: Superstar rookie Elias Pettersson has confirmed that he will be joining Eriksson and Markstrom on Team Sweden. At the end of season media availability, Pettersson said he wanted to go back home first and discuss the opportunity over with his family before making a decision on whether or not he’ll play.

The Canucks will be well represented at this year’s tournament, and there’s a strong chance that goaltender Thatcher Demko will join the USA team, as well. We’ll keep you updated when more news arises surrounding the World Championships.