Islanders' Bo Horvat and Noah Dobson, Rangers' Will Cuylle to play on Team Canada for IIHF World Championship

It’s small solace but the Islanders and Rangers missing the postseason does mean their players are available for the IIHF World Championship in Denmark and Sweden on May 9-25.

Hockey Canada announced its roster on Thursday, confirming Newsday’s report from Wednesday that the Islanders’ Bo Horvat and defenseman Noah Dobson and the Rangers’ Will Cuylle will play for the squad. Team USA on Wednesday added the Rangers’ Brett Berard to its roster.
“I think it’s an honor to play for your country, any chance you can get,” Cuylle told Newsday after the Rangers' last game of the season.

This would be Cuylle's and Dobson's first time competing in the World Championship.

Meanwhile, the Rangers’ Mika Zibanejad and the Islanders’ Simon Holmstrom are both expected to play for Team Sweden, while the Rangers’ Juuso Parssinen is expected to play for Finland.

“I don’t know exactly what it’s like,” Dobson said during the Islanders' end-of-season locker clean-out earlier this month. “But I know just the mindset going into it for me is I only played 70 games this year, my body feels pretty good. And, also, with the Olympics coming up, it’s an opportunity to represent your country and put yourself in a position to get on the radar going into next season and go into the summer feeling good and, hopefully, try to win a gold medal.”

The NHL will pause for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy in February and Horvat agreed with Dobson that playing for Team Canada now might benefit the players when it came to selecting the roster for the Winter Games.

“It’s a pretty big year for Olympic-wise next year,” Horvat said at the team's break-up day.

Horvat played for Team Canada in the 2018 World Championship when it lost to Team USA in the bronze-medal game.

“I think it would be a good stepping stone for me to go prove myself," Horvat said, "and represent my country.”