Five St. Louis Blues players will suit up for their home countries at the 2023 IIHF World Championship, which takes place in Finland and Latvia from May 12-28.
Sammy Blais, Jake Neighbours and Joel Hofer will compete for Team Canada (under Hockey Canda General Manager Doug Armstrong); Kasperi Kapanen for Team Finland and Scott Perunovich for Team USA.
The tournament begins with Team USA facing off against Finland on Friday at 8:20 a.m. CT, and Canada begins their gold medal hunt shortly after with a 12:20 p.m. CT matchup against Latvia.
PARTICIPATING PLAYERS
Sammy Blais
Forward, Team Canada
Originally drafted by the Blues in 2014, the 26-year-old forward was brought back to St. Louis last season in the Vladimir Tarasenko trade with the New York Rangers. Blais thrived after the trade, posting career-highs in goals (9), assists (11) and points (20) across just 31 games back with the Blues.
Blais will be making his first career appearance for Team Canada at the World Championship.
Joel Hofer
Goalie, Team Canada
Selected by the Blues in the 2018 NHL Draft, the 22-year-old goaltender made six NHL starts this season and delivered an All-Star season for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. With the Blues, Hofer went 3-1-1 in goal with a .905 save percentage and 3.22 goals-against average.
Hofer made a strong impression on Team Canada at the 2020 World Junior Championship, leading all goaltenders in goals-against average (1.60) and save percentage (.939) en route to the tournament’s Best Goaltender Award and a gold medal for his country.
Kasperi Kapanen
Forward, Team Finland
Claimed off of waivers midway through the season, the 26-year-old forward posted eight goals and six assists for 14 points in 23 games with the Blues.
Kapanen has a great deal of international experience for Team Finland, most notably scoring the gold medal-winning goal at the 2016 World Junior Championship. He also added three goals in eight games at the 2018 World Championship.
Jake Neighbours
Forward, Team Canada
Drafted by the Blues at No. 26 overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, the 21-year-old forward recorded six goals and four assists in a career-high 43 NHL games this season.
Neighbours has been selected to represent Team Canada three times in his career, including the World U-17 Hockey Challenge in 2018-19 and – prior to the tournament being postponed – the 2022 World Junior Championship.
Scott Perunovich
Defenseman, Team USA
The 24-year-old defenseman was picked by the Blues in the 2018 Draft, playing 19 NHL games last year before an upper-body injury disrupted his 2022-23 campaign. Once healthy, he recorded 20 points in 22 games for the Thunderbirds.
Perunovich last represented Team USA in 2018, recording three points in seven games at the World Junior Championships. This will mark the third time in his career that Perunovich skates for Team USA, also having experience in the U18 National Team Development Program.
TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Each team will play seven group stage games before the Top 4 from each of the two groups are selected for the elimination stage and medal rounds.
The quarterfinals begin on May 25 in Riga, Latvia and Tampere, Finland; with the semifinals and finals held at Nokia Arena in Tampere.
Team USA’s games will air on NHL Network. ESPN+ will stream select additional games.
To view the full schedule, team rosters and player stats, visit IIHF.com.
