Western Pennsylvania native Ryan Zapolski has been selected to represent the United States in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, which well be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea from Feb 9 – 25.
It will be the first Olympics appearance for Zapolski. He has also represented Team USA in the Deutschland Cup in 2013, 2015 and 2017
Zapolski, 21, is a goaltender from Erie. He played for Mercyhurst in college and spent time with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the AHL amongst seven other minor-league stops.
He is currently in his second season playing for Jokerit, a Finnish team in the Russian-based KHL. In 32 games this season, he has a 1.68 goals-against average and a .935 save percentage.
Every kid dreams of playing for their country in the Olympics. I never thought it would happen for me. Words can’t describe how proud and honored I am to represent ?? in PyeongChang. Let’s go USA!
— Ryan Zapolski (@rzapolski) January 1, 2018
Pittsburgh natives Ryan Malone and Dylan Reese had also been Olympic hopefuls and were rostered in the Deutschland Cup, but were not selected. For the first time since 1994, players on NHL contracts are not participating in the Olympic Games.
