Devils' Alexander Holtz Will Not Play for Team Sweden at Mens Worlds

During his end-of-season media availability, New Jersey Devils forward Alexander Holtz expressed his hope of representing Team Sweden at the IHF Men's World Championship.

"We will see. I hope so, but we do not know yet," Holtz said.

On May 4, Sweden faced Czechia as part of the Betano Hockey Games. Holtz began the game on the first line with Andre Burakovsky and Joel Eriksson Ek. He was demoted to the third line in his team's next game on May 5 against Finland.

Team Sweden announced their final roster on Wednesday, which did not include Holtz.

The list of NHLers who made the final roster includes: Samuel Ersson ( Philadelphia Flyers ), Filip Gustavsson ( Minnesota Wild ), Jonas Brodin ( Minnesota Wild ), Rasmus Dahlin ( Buffalo Sabres ), Marcus Pettersson ( Pittsburgh Penguins ), Erik Karlsson ( Pittsburgh Penguins ), Victor Herman ( Tampa Bay Lightning ), Adrian Kempe ( Los Angeles Kings ), Joel Eriksson Ek ( Minnesota Wild ), Lucas Raymond ( Detroit Red Wings ), Isac Lundestrom ( Anaheim Ducks ), Fabian Zetterlund ( San Jose Sharks ), Victor Olofsson ( Buffalo Sabres ), Marcus Johansson ( Minnesota Wild ), Carl Grundstrom (Los Angeles Kings), and Burakovsky ( Seattle Kraken ).

The IIHF Men's World Championship will take place in Prague and Ostrava. The first games of the group stage will start on May 10, and the tournament will conclude with the medal round on May 26 in Prague.

New Jersey has eight players playing in the tournament: Dawson Mercer and Nico Daws will represent Team Canada, Nico Hischier, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Akira Schmid will represent Team Switzerland, Luke Hughes will represent Team USA, Ondrej Palat will represent Team Czechia and Simon Nemec will represent Team Slovakia.

Related: Devils Q&A: Alexander Holtz Reflects on First 100 Career NHL Games