Top 10 former NHLers to watch at the 2024 Spengler Cup

If you’re a diehard fan of Puckdoku, you probably follow the Spengler Cup quite closely.

For NHL fans, the Spengler is a great opportunity to watch players from the NHL of old – some of them might have been depth guys, or others might have had long, successful careers and opted to finish things out in Europe. The Spengler Cup is the oldest invitational hockey tournament, having first taken place in 1923. Swiss team HC Davos hosts the event at the historic Eisstadion Davos, often viewed as one of the greatest hockey rinks in Europe.

Davos invites five other teams to compete each year – one being Team Canada. The 2024 lineup consists of Canada, Davos and German team Straubing Tigers in the Cattini Group. The Torriani Group is made up of Switzerland’s HC Fribourg-Gotteron, Czechia’s HC Dynamo Pardubice and Finland’s Karpat Oulu.

Canada and Davos have both won the tournament an equal 16 times, with Davos looking to defend the title this year. Pardubice, meanwhile, is looking for revenge after falling in the final last year.

With the tournament running from Dec. 26-31, here’s a look at 10 former NHLers to keep an eye on this year. Some teams could elect to rest their bigger-name players at points in the tournament, so player availability is subject to change:

Sam Gagner, C (Team Canada)

Gagner is the biggest name on the Canadian team, having registered 529 points in 1,043 games over 17 NHL season. Gagner has recently been training in Sweden, but has not played anywhere professionally since the 2023-24 NHL regular season with the Edmonton Oilers. Gagner was part of the 2012 team that won the title in 2012 during the NHL lockout, with many of Canada’s top players making the trip over. His NHL career might be over at this point, but the 35-year-old wants to prove he can still play decent hockey after serving as a part-time depth scoring threat the past few years.

Matt Irwin, D (Team Canada)

Like Gagner, Irwin hasn’t played this season, etiher. In fact, he announced his retirement over a month ago. But the chance to represent Canada for the first time ever had to be alluring for the 37-year-old defenseman who was never afraid to play an aggressive brand of hockey. He had a respectable 25 goals and 93 points in 461 NHL games, using in a bottom-pairing/seventh defenseman role. It’s nothing flashy, but it’s good enough to keep him around for 11 NHL seasons.

Josh Jooris, C (Team Canada)

Jooris primarily played in depth roles during his NHL career, registering just 23 goals and 55 points in 213 games with Calgary, Arizona, Carolina, Pittsburgh, and the New York Rangers. The Burlington, Ontario native has spent the past four years with Geneve-Servette and has a shot at winning his third Spengler Cup, too. Jooris won it in 2019 with Canada, in 2022 as an extra player with Ambri-Piotta, and had a goal in four outings for Canada a year ago in his third tournament appearance. Jooris has had a bit of a quieter year in the NL, but he is expected to be one of Canada’s better two-way players.

Raphael Diaz, D (HC Fribourg-Gotteron)

Diaz spent five years in the NHL, skating in 201 games between the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers and Calgary Flames from 2011-16. He never could really establish himself in the big leagues, but he is a three-time top defenseman in the National League in Switzerland. At 38, Diaz’s best days are way behind him, but he’s still a veteran who can play around 19-20 minutes a night and remain effective. His contract concludes at the end of the season, so you have to wonder if this is the last international appearance for him.

Reto Berra, G (HC Fribourg-Gotteron)

Berra is as experienced as they come at the Spengler Cup, having played in six with Davos from 2007-12. He eventually went on to have a five-year NHL career, and while he never really established himself as a full-timer, he did play nearly 30 games with the Flames in his first year in the NHL in 2013-14. Berra’s numbers aren’t great in the NL, but he should be one of the better goalies at the Spengler.

Roman Červenka, LW (HC Dynamo Pardubice)

Červenka only had 17 points in 39 games with the Flames during the 2012-13 season – which, given his prominence in Europe, was a bit disappointing. He quickly returned to Europe, but has been an absolute force for the Czech national team in recent years. In fact, Červenka won the 2023 NL MVP led the World Championship with 17 points 2022 and was a key reason why the team won gold this past May. He’s 39, but the Červenka has shown no signs of slowing down as a point-per-game player back in his home country.

Lukáš Sedlák, C (HC Dynamo Pardubice)

Sedlák was primarily a depth player during his four-year NHL career, scoring 18 goals and 35 points in 192 games with the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2016-19 and later on with Colorado and Philadelphia in 2022-23. While his NHL results never materialized, he’s been one of the best Czech-born players outside of the NHL for the past three years, and it resulted in him being a crucial piece of the World Championship-winning national team effort back in May. The Pardubice captain missed some time due to injuries this year but has been a crucial piece of Pardubice’s hot play over the past month or so.

Filip Zadina, RW (HC Davos)

Zadina’s NHL career never seemed to pan out, but he’s finding success with Davos this year. He has 15 goals and 23 points in 29 games )and 60 penalty minutes, to boot) while playing a key role for the tournament hosts. He’s getting a ton of shot volume on and he’s just looking as confident and comfortable as we’ve seen from him in his pro career. It just simply didn’t work out for him in Detroit or San Jose, but it’ll be interesting if he can turn his two-year deal in Switzerland to bring him back to the NHL. He’s only 25, so he’s still quite young.

Brendan Lemieux, LW (HC Davos)

Lemieux recently had his contract with the Carolina Hurricanes terminated after spending 12 games with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. The rough-and-tumble forward is set to bring his physicality to his first Spengler after joining Davos for his first game action earlier this week. He didn’t produce anything, but he played some second-line minutes and is getting comfortable on the bigger ice. We’ll see how much he’s utilized at an event like this where there typically isn’t any shortage of physicality.

Justin Braun, D (Straubing Tigers)

Braun played 842 games over 13 seasons in the NHL, and while he was never a star, he was definitely a serviceable defender. At 37, his best hockey is well behind him, but the 2007 seventh-rounder is still capable of playing around 20 minutes a night in the German DEL. Braun is a shutdown defender who isn’t afraid to fire a hard slapper from the point, something he has a bit more space to do on the European ice surfaces. We’ll see just how well his legs move these days but he can still be a difficult player to beat in 1-on-1 situations.