Forward Sam Duggan says he is proud to be back in the Great Britain squad for the upcoming World Championship.
The 22-year-old was named in Pete Russell’s 28-man squad for Latvia – his first senior international tournament call-up for four years.
After scoring 29 points in 35 games as a junior for GB, Duggan made his full World Championship debut in the gold-medal campaign in Belfast in 2017.
He scored twice in a remarkable 14-0 victory over Netherlands as Great Britain won all five matches to secure promotion to the second tier.
“It’s a very proud feeling to be back involved,” said Duggan. “It was a huge honour to be a part of the team in Belfast in 2017 and to win the gold there was one of the highlights of my career.
“It feels great to be back and I’m very, very honoured and proud. It’s really great to be with all the boys – to meet back up with them again is always a really good feeling.”
The 16-team top-level World Championship is split into two groups of eight in Riga and takes place between 21st May to 6th June.
GB, who will at based at the Olympic Sports Centre, start their Group A campaign against Russia before matches against Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus, Sweden, Czech Republic and Switzerland.
Group B – located at Arena Riga – consists of hosts Latvia, as well as Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Norway and the USA.
Duggan moved to play in Europe as a youngster and played in the top Swedish junior leagues until 2018. After a short stint in North America, he signed for Cardiff Devils.
With no full Elite League season, he returned to Sweden last season to play for Segeltorps before coming back to the UK to ice for Coventry Blaze in the Elite Series.
Speaking about his latest stint in Sweden, Duggan said: “It was a great experience and gave me the opportunity to play more minutes.
“It was just a great opportunity for me to play and I loved it. We had a great group of boys and it was nice to be back in Sweden again. I have special memories from the country from my four years as a junior. I think the experience will help me in the long run.
“Playing in the Elite Series was great too. Everyone involved did an amazing to get the tournament on. We played a lot of games in a short space of time, but again it was a really good experience.
“It was good for a lot of young guys who have not had the opportunity to play at that level in the past few years. It was a great thing for the league and to get the guys back on the ice coming into the GB camp.”