Swiss League star and former NHLer Nick Spaling, a Drayton native, participated in his second Spengler Cup tournament win over the holidays.
Spaling, who played with last year’s Spengler Cup winning Team Canada entry is part of a Canadian team which blanked Switerland, the only other national team in the six-team event, in the Dec. 31 tournament final.
Spaling didn’t figure in the scoring in the 2017 tournament held in Davos, Switzerland.
At the 2016 tournament he recorded three points in helping Canada win the championship.
The Spengler Cup is a tournament generally entered by European club teams, with a Canadian entry cobbled together from Canadians playing in European pro leagues.
However with the NHL bowing out of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the tournament has become part of the assessment process for players for Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team.
Spaling was added to the national pre-Olympic squad by Hockey Canada on Nov. 6. He is playing in his second season with Swiss club Geneve Servette and has recorded nine goals and five assists in 26 games so far. He competed for Team Canada in the Karjala Cup on Nov. 8 to 12 in Helsinki, Finland.
Spaling recorded 124 points in 437 NHL games spent with Nashville, Pittsburgh, Toronto and San Jose before moving to the Swiss League for the 2016-17 season.
Before turning professional, Spaling played Junior B hockey with the Listowel Cyclones and Major Junior A with the Kitchener Rangers.
Canada is expected to announce the roster for its Olympic men’s team by mid-January.
The Pyeongchang Games are set for Feb. 9 to 25.
