"This is an honorable task and a wonderful thing," Valtteri Filppula is quoted on the website of the Finnish ice hockey association. The now 37-year-old already won an Olympic bronze medal in 2014, but missed the 2018 Olympics due to injury.
Filppula returned to Europe last summer after 16 years in the NHL, where he won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008. With Genève-Servette HC, he has appeared in 39 games so far, in which he recorded 37 points (14 goals).
