Minnesota Wild defenseman Nick Schultz will represent Team Canada at the World Championships, which begin this week. Schultz joins Wild teammates Pavol Demitra, Marian Gaborik and Branko Radivojevic (Slovakia), Mikko Koivu and Petteri Nummelin (Finland) and Adam Hall (United States) in Moscow, Russia for the tournament. Two Wild prospects: Julien Sprunger (Switzerland) and Morten Madsen (Denmark) will also take part.

This will be the third World Championships appearance for Schultz, who hails from Strasbourg, Saskatchewan. He helped Canada to a gold medal finish at the 2004 tournament, posting a +2 rating and one assist in nine games. In 2006, he notched two assists in nine contests.

The World Championships begin Friday, April 27 with each team playing three games against teams in its Group in a round-robin format.  Following the Preliminary Round, teams are re-seeded within their Groups according to points (two points for a win, one point for a tie and zero points for a loss).  The top three teams in each Group advance to the Qualification Round to play in three crossover games against the opposite Group in its bracket (for example, if the United States advanced it would play against the top three teams in Group C).

Teams carry points into the Qualification Round based on competition against teams that also advance.  Following this round, the top four point leaders in each of the two brackets (Groups A & D and Groups B & C) advance to the single-elimination Quarterfinal Round games May 9 and 10.  Teams are re-seeded to determine match-ups.  New points acquired in the Qualification Round only carry-over if they come against teams advancing to the Quarterfinal Round.  The four winning teams in the Quarterfinal Round advance to the Semifinals May 12 and the Medal Round May 13.

Sweden defeated the Czech Republic in the gold medal game last year.  Finland earned the bronze medal and the United States finished seventh.

Group A - Italy, Denmark, Austria, Canada    
Group B - Latvia, Finland, Belarus, Germany    
Group C - Sweden, Russian, Czech Republic, Norway
Group D - Switzerland, Ukraine, United States, Slovakia