Kreider and Skjei to play for USA at Worlds, Fast recovering from thumb surgery
News and notes from breakup day
As expected, we’re starting to get bits and pieces of news out of the New York Rangers locker room now that the 2018-19 regular season is over. Larry Brooks has reported that Chris Kreider and Brady Skjei will both represent team USA in the 2019 IIHF World Championships.
Kreider, Skjei will play for Team USA in World Championships. Chytil has invite to play for Czech. Georgiev may get invite from Russia. Zibanejad unsure whether he will play for Sweden.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) April 7, 2019
This year’s Worlds take place will take place in Slovakia and begin on May 10. Last year, Team USA won bronze; Team Switzerland claimed silver; and Team Sweden won Gold. It’s also worth noting that Chris Drury, the assistant general manager of the New York Rangers, is the current GM of Team USA.
Brooks also reported that Rangers rookie forward Filip Chytil has been invited to represent the Czech Republic. Goaltenders Alexandar Georgiev and Henrik Lundqvist may also represent their respective countries. The same is true of center Mika Zibanejad. It sounds like Lundqvist and Zibanejad are undecided, but there’s little doubt that Sweden would love to have both of them in their bid to win another gold medal.
Another detail that surfaced today is that winger Jesper Fast underwent thumb surgery last Monday to repair “torn ligaments and a fracture” he sustained sometime around the All-Star break. Fast’s recovery is expected to take six weeks, so he’ll be good to go for training camp. He scored eight goals and picked up 12 assists in 66 games this season.
Forgot to mention: Jesper Fast had surgery on Monday to repair a ligament in his right thumb. Should be a six-week recovery, so he'll be good to go come training camp.
— Colin Stephenson (@ColinASteph) April 7, 2019
We’ll keep you posted on any other news that surfaces from break-up day.
