For the first time since 2013, Alex Edler will be competing for Team Sweden at next month's World Championship.
After the Canucks were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by the San Jose Sharks in 2013, Edler and the Sedins headed to Stockholm to play for their country.
Sweden won gold that year—that's when the Sedins looked so great playing with Loui Eriksson, especially on the power play. But Edler played just two games. He received a game misconduct and was suspended for the rest of the tournament—and the first two games of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi—for his knee-on-knee hit on Canada's Eric Staal in Sweden's quarterfinal game.
The Sedins have passed once again on playing for their country—more committed now to their roles as family men.
It's nice to know that Alex Edler is healthy enough to play more hockey this season—that seems like a rarity, these days. Victor Hedman is a marvellous addition for Team Sweden and Eddie Lack, of course, is thrilled.
I believe this will be his first time ever wearing a Tre Kronor jersey at any level.
I will be back at World Championships again this year, but Team Canada's in the opposite bracket to the Swedes, so I won't see Edler, Lack and company until the medal round.
I had been hoping that Bo Horvat would be on the Canadian roster, but his status as a restricted free agent makes him an unlikely candidate. Players in his situation don't like to risk injury before they sign their next pro contracts.
The tournament starts on May 5. Team Canada will be holding a pre-tournament camp in Geneva, Switzerland, with a warmup game against the Swiss on May 2.
Horvat might still receive an invitation if he and the Canucks can come to terms in the next couple of weeks, but the Canadian roster is already very strong down the middle. Hockey Canada has received firm commitments from centres Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, Mark Scheifele, Ryan O'Reilly, Claude Giroux and Brayden Point.
Looks like Steven Stamkos and John Tavares are both too injured to play. Even without them, that's an impressive group to anchor Canada's forwards.
Switzerland is playing in Canada's group, and Sven Baertschi was an early commit—before he went down with that neck injury in the Canucks' 80th game of the season.
Luca Sbisa's staying close to his pregnant wife, who will give birth to their first child in June.
Baertschi was at the end-of-season media availability, and said he 'hoped' to play. He has some time to rest and rehabilitate, so hopefully he'll be ready to go by the end of the month.
Also on the international hockey front, the 2017 Under-18 championship is now underway in Slovakia. This is the last tournament for draft-eligible players to show their stuff before the run-up to June's NHL draft gets underway in earnest.
Last year, we saw players like Tyson Jost, Clayton Keller, Logan Brown and Jesse Puljujarvi boost their stock at the tournament in North Dakota, where Team USA ultimately defeated Sweden for the gold medal.
Click here for a detailed rundown of players to watch this year in Slovakia, from Chapin Landvogt at IIHF.com.
You can find some TV coverage of the tournament on TSN2. The next game that will be broadcast is the U.S. vs. Russia, on Saturday morning at 6:30 a.m. PT.
The preliminary round runs until next Tuesday. The medal round begins on Thursday and the medals will be decided in the final games next Sunday, April 23.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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