I had lunch with them today (long story, but I didn’t know they were going to be there)
Pretty much they said they had NHL guys until IIHF poked there nose in, due to duress from NZIHF, which is probably valid, but I am pretty sure NHLPA wouldn’t be happy finding out after the fact their members were playing in NZ.
What I can tell you though is the players coming all have a lot of NHL experience, Bates Battigulia is coming. Along with some other names I didn’t know, but one of the Canadians at lunch did know.
Essentially no active NHL player is coming in a playing capacity. Kyle Quincey will coach team Canada, and Rob Schremp is NOT coming at all.
They wanted to have a third line made up of the import players in NZ, but it has been blocked by NZIHF