CALGARY — Former No. 1 pick Alexandre Daigle was among 23 players named to Canada’s Spengler Cup roster Monday.
Daigle, taken first overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 1993 draft, was among 13 forwards named to the squad, which will look to atone for last year’s loss in the championship game.
The 35-year-old has spent the past three-plus seasons in the Swiss League after leaving the NHL in 2006.
Daigle has 129 goals and 198 assists in 616 career games with Ottawa, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay, the New York Rangers, Pittsburgh and Minnesota.
Other notable former NHL players on the roster include goaltender David LeNeveu, defencemen Yannick Tremblay and Jamie Rivers and forwards Mark Bell, Brett McLean and Josh Holden.
The roster consists mostly of ex-NHLers who now play in Europe, along with minor-leaguers loaned to the team by NHL clubs.
“The players we have selected are Canadian ambassadors for the game in Europe, and we are thrilled they have committed to wear the maple leaf and try to bring home another Spengler Cup championship for Canada,” Hockey Canada executive vice-president Johnny Misley said in a statement.
Canada’s roster also features seven players who were part of last year’s team that lost the gold-medal game to Moscow Dynamo: Serge Aubin, Micki DuPont, Shawn Heins, Ric Jackman, Randy Robitaille, Stacy Roest and J.P. Vigier.
Aubin will serve as team captain, with Heins and Roest as alternates.
The five-team tournament, which kicks off Dec. 26 in Davos, Switzerland, will see Canada battle Adler Mannheim (Germany), HCDynamo Minsk (Belarus), HC Energie Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic) and HC Davos. Canada last won the event in 2007.