Schmidli Named to Swiss World Junior Team
Kris Schmidli has cemented his plans for the Christmas season.
The second year Rockets forward and Switzerland native has been named to Team Switzerland that will compete in the 2015 World Junior Hockey Championships in Toronto and Montreal.
“It’s always a special feeling to represent your country,” said Schmidli, a native of Zurich, SUI. “To be able to wear the Switzerland jersey…it makes me feel really good.”
Schmidli will join Team Switzerland in Toronto when the team flies to North America and will play in two pre-tournament exhibition games as the Swiss will play Slovakia Dec. 21 and Canada Dec. 23 before the tournament begins.
Schmidli says his game has improved since joining the Rockets at the start of last season and he credits his time in the WHL for the chance to represent his country.
“For sure. I have learned a lot here,” he said. “I have more compete every night and I know what I have to do every night.”
In 25 games with the Rockets this season, Schmidli has fives goals and 12 assists in 27 games and has a plus-10 rating. Last year as a rookie in the WHL, Schmidli scored nined goals and added 26 assists.
He says it’s going to be a great tournament and added Switzerland hockey has come along way in the past few years and his country is not afraid to play against the big teams like Canada the US or Russia.
“We know we can beat the big countries, we have shown we are not afraid to play them,” he said. “The World Junior is a big deal for us. We are a small country but in in the past few years we have shown we can compete with Canada, Russia or the US.”
