MOSCOW (AP) — Former NHL players Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk will lead the hockey team of the "Olympic Athletes from Russia" at the Pyeongchang Games.
It will be the fifth Olympics for both Datsyuk and Kovalchuk. They will be on a team drawn entirely from the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League.
The Russian roster — for a team which must play in neutral uniforms under the Olympic flag — was announced Thursday. It also features former Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voynov, who left the NHL following his arrest on felony domestic violence charges in 2014.
Forward Vadim Shipachyov is also due to compete at the Olympics, three months after he walked out on a deal with the Vegas Golden Knights. The team had wanted Shipachyov to play in the minors to gain experience, but he opted to retire from the NHL, saying he felt betrayed by not being given a more prominent role.
Five Russian players failed to pass International Olympic Committee vetting imposed as part of Russia's punishment for doping offenses at the 2014 Olympics. However, officials said only one of the five, former Pittsburgh Penguins winger Sergei Plotnikov, would have made the roster.
With the NHL out of the Olympics for the first time since 1994, the Russians are considered contenders for the gold medal. A similar Russian roster beat Finland, Sweden and Canada at an exhibition tournament in Moscow last month.
The KHL is widely considered the highest-quality league outside the NHL and its top clubs are flush with cash from Russian state energy companies. The league has used that wealth to tempt players like Kovalchuk and Datsyuk to play back home.
Thursday's roster contains players from only three clubs, with 15 of the 25 coming from KHL champion SKA St. Petersburg — backed by Russian state gas company Gazprom. There are eight from CSKA Moscow, which has backing from state oil company Rosneft, and two from Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
The Russian Hockey Federation leadership has previously said the starting goaltender is likely to be Metallurg's Vasily Koshechkin, who has a .931 save percentage in the KHL this season.
Russia's players will have more time to prepare for the Pyeongchang Games than their Olympic rivals. The KHL has suspended its regular season for a month to accommodate the Olympics and give national team players extended training camps. The break doesn't officially begin until Sunday, though all three teams which submitted players to the Russian roster have already played their final games.