BURLINGTON, Vt. – Former UVM men's hockey forward Viktor Stalberg '09 has been named to the Swedish National Team for the upcoming Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Stalberg will compete in his first-ever Olympics, joining Ryan Gunderson '07 and Amanda Pelkey '15 of Team USA.
Stalberg and Gunderson will become the sixth and seventh former men's hockey Catamounts to compete in the Winter Olympics, where UVM has been represented in ice hockey at every Games since 1998.
"On behalf of our staff and players, I'd like to congratulate Vik on this great accomplishment," said head coach
Kevin Sneddon, who coached Stalberg at Vermont from 2006-09. "Now we have three UVM hockey alums to cheer for in South Korea."
Stalberg is currently playing for EV Zug in the Swiss National League, where he ranks fifth in the league with 41 points in 35 games this season. Stalberg was previously selected to Team Sweden for the 2012 IIHF World Championship.
The forward spent parts of eight seasons in the NHL with six different teams and won the 2013 Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks. His final NHL season last year was split between Carolina and Ottawa, where he closed with an appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals. He played in nearly 500 NHL games and posted 82 goals and 86 assists in his career.
During his junior year at Vermont, Stalberg was a First Team All-American and finalist for the Hobey Baker Award with 24 goals and 22 assists, leading the Catamounts to the 2009 Frozen Four. His younger brother Sebastian also played three seasons at UVM from 2009-12.
Sweden begins Preliminary Round competition against Germany on Friday, Feb. 16 at 7:10 a.m. (ET). The United States opens two days prior against Slovenia at 7:10 a.m. (ET) on Wednesday, Feb. 14.
The Winter Olympics will be broadcast on NBC, NBCSN, and the networks of NBC Universal. Every Olympic event will be available to stream live and on-demand on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.
Handy Toyota is the presenting sponsor of the 2017-18 men's hockey season
