Gestev presents the pre-tournament game between the teams North America vs Europe, in anticipation of the World Cup of Hockey 2016, on September 8 at Videotron Centre.

THE TEAMS

16 players on each team have already been selected and announced by each team’s management staff, which was appointed by the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) and the National Hockey League (NHL). The following players will be part of Team Europe and Team North America:

Frederik Andersen (Anaheim) - G

Jaroslav Halak (N.Y. Islanders) – G Thomas Greiss (N.Y. Islanders) - G

Zdeno Chara (Boston) – D

Roman Josi (Nashville) – D

Dennis Seidenberg (Boston) – D

Andrej Sekera (Edmonton) – D

Mark Streit (Philadelphia) – D Christian Ehrhoff (Chicago) - D Luca Sbisa (Vancouver) - D Mikkel Boedker (Colorado) – F Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton) – F

Jannik Hansen (Vancouver) – F

Marian Hossa (Chicago) – F

Anze Kopitar (Los Angeles) – F

Frans Nielsen (N.Y. Islanders) – F

Tomas Tatar (Detroit) – F

Thomas Vanek (Minnesota) – F

Mats Zuccarello (N.Y. Rangers) – F Pierre-Édouard Bellemare (Philadelphie) - F Marian Gaborik (Los Angeles) - F Nino Niederreiter ( Minnesota) - F Tobias Rieder ( Arizona) - F

John Gibson (Anaheim) – G

Connor Hellebuyck (Manitoba AHL) - G

Matthew Murray (Pittsburgh) – G

Aaron Ekblad (Floride) – D

Seth Jones (Columbus) – D

Ryan Murray (Columbus) – D

Morgan Rielly (Toronto) – D Shayne Gostisbehere (Philadelphie) - D Colton Parayko (St. Louis) - D Jacob Trouba (Winnipeg) - D

Sean Couturier (Philadelphie) – F

Jack Eichel (Buffalo) – F

Johnny Gaudreau (Calgary) – F

Dylan Larkin (Détroit) – F

Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado) – F

Connor McDavid (Edmonton) – F

J.T. Miller (N.Y. Rangers) – F

Sean Monahan (Calgary) – F

Brandon Saad (Columbus) – F Jonathan Drouin (Tampa Bay) - F Auston Matthews (Zurich) - F Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Edmonton) - F Mark Scheifele ( Winnipeg) - F

ABOUT THE WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY 2016

The World Cup of Hockey returns to Toronto in September 2016, where eight teams, comprised of the world’s best hockey players, will compete for a best-on-best international hockey championship. The World Cup of Hockey is a joint effort of the NHLPA and the NHL, in cooperation with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It is expected that more than 150 of the best NHL players will be part of the eight participating teams: Team Canada (CAN), Team Czech Republic (CZE), Team Europe (EUR - players born outside Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden), Team Finland (FIN), Team North America (NA - best Canadian and American players aged 23 years old and under as of October 1, 2016), Team Russia (RUS), Team Sweden (SWE) and Team USA (USA).

In addition of the pre-tournament game played in Quebec City on September 8th, 11 more pre-tournament games will be played from September 8th to the 14th in Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington, Montreal and Ottawa, as well as in Prague, Czech Republic, Gothenburg, Sweden, Helsinki, Finland and Moscow, Russia.

For the Preliminary Round (round robin tournament) which will take place from September 17th to the 22nd, the eight teams will be divided into two groups -- Group A and Group B -- and each team will play each of the other three teams in its group. The teams finishing first and second in their respective groups will advance to the Semifinals (September 24th and 25th), with the first place teams in each of the groups facing the teams that took the second position in the other group in a sudden-death semi-final game. The two winners of the Semifinals will meet in a best-of-three Final series to be held on September 27th, 29th and October 1st, if necessary.

For more information on the World Cup of Hockey 2016, visit the www.wch2016.com