Nino Niederreiter apparently feels he still has some hockey left in him this season as the Minnesota Wild announced Tuesday that the right wing will represent Switzerland at the 2016 IIHF World Championship, which begins on May 6 in Russia.
Switzerland’s first game of the tournament takes place on May 7, when it takes on Kazakhstan.
Niederreiter reached the 20-goal plateau for the second straight season in 2015-16 while setting career highs with 23 assists and 43 points. He also notched a tally and five assists in Minnesota’s six-game loss to the Dallas Stars in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Selected by the New York Islanders with the fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft, Niederreiter made his NHL debut in 2010-11, recording one goal and one assist in nine games. The 23-year-old netted just one tally in 55 contests the following season before being traded to the Wild for Cal Clutterbuck on June 30, 2013.
Niederreiter has missed only three games in three seasons with Minnesota and has notched at least 36 points in each campaign. He scored a career-high 24 goals in 2014-15 and has collected 60 tallies and 59 assists in 307 regular-season contests with the Islanders and Wild.
The 6-foot-2, 211-pound Niederreiter has registered eight goals and nine assists in 29 playoff contests with Minnesota. The native of Chur, Switzerland has represented his country at the 2014 Winter Olympics as well as three World Championships, helping it capture a medal – silver – in the tournament for the first time in 60 years in 2013.
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