Record 15 Former Griffins to Participate in Olympics

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Continuing the Grand Rapids Griffins’ long and storied history with the Olympic Games, a record 15 former Griffins will take part in the 2022 Winter Olympics that will be held in Beijing, China, from Feb. 4-20.

The group includes four Calder Cup champions and all three goalies from the Griffins’ 2018-19 squad that earned the franchise’s seventh consecutive playoff berth. Eight of the 12 participating countries’ rosters or coaching staffs will include a former Griffins player, and 17 of the 18 Preliminary Round games will involve at least one of these alumni.

Taking part will be Justin Abdelkader (alternate), Andy Miele and Pat Nagle of the United States; Landon Ferraro, Eddie Pasquale and Ben Street from Canada; Jake Chelios and Ryan Sproul with China; Libor Sulak of the Czech Republic; Andreas Lilja (assistant coach) with Denmark; Valtteri Filppula and Harri Sateri from Finland; Tomas Jurco and Patrik Rybar of Slovakia; and Mathias Brome from Sweden.

In addition, Mike Fountain will coach in the Paralympic Winter Games scheduled for March 4-13 in Beijing, as he is in his fourth year as the goaltending coach for Canada’s Para Hockey Team.

Eight former Griffins participated as players or coaches in the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, after a then-record 11 alumni played in the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia.

A Griffins alum has medaled in each of the last four Olympics. In the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, Niklas Kronwall became the first Griffins alumnus to earn an Olympic medal, winning gold thanks to Sweden’s victory over Finland in the championship game. Valtteri Filppula became the second to medal in 2010 in Vancouver, earning a bronze with Finland. Kronwall then became the only former Griffin to win two Olympic medals by taking silver in Sochi alongside fellow Grand Rapids alumni Jonathan Ericsson, Jonas Gustavsson and Gustav Nyquist, completing the Olympic medal spectrum for former Griffins. The 2018 Games in PyeongChang featured two medal winners, as Alexey Marchenko won gold with the Olympic Athletes from Russia while Chris Kelly scored the game-winning goal for Canada in the bronze medal game.

With the selection of this year’s 15 players and coaches, 38 alumni have participated after concluding their Griffins careers. Six players represented their countries while playing for the Griffins, including Abdelkader this year with Team USA and Kronwall during Sweden’s gold-medal run in 2006. Among 16 players who participated in the Olympics prior to their time in Grand Rapids, Curtis Joseph (2002 Canada), Stefan Liv (2006 Sweden), Mikael Samuelsson (2006 Sweden) and Slava Butsayev (1992 Unified Team) all earned gold medals.

The 2022 Olympic Men’s Hockey schedule can be found here, while a complete history of the Griffins and the Olympics is available here.

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