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| Former Minnesota State defenseman Evan Mosey played for Great Britain at the 2019 IIHF World Championship |
Since then, however, Mosey has been on a journey that has seen him wearing the colors of HYC Herentals in Belgium, the Nottingham Panthers in the Elite Ice Hockey League, the Rockford Ice Hogs in the American Hockey League, the Indy Fuel in the ECHL, the Herning Blue Fox in Denmark and the Cardiff Devils in the EIHL.
"After graduating at Minnesota State I knew I wanted to go play hockey somewhere. I wanted to go to Europe and see new places and experience other cultures while being able to play hockey. I played my first year in Belgium for HYC Herentals. I had the most fun I’ve ever had playing hockey. Being able to travel see new places meet new people and of course Belgium has great beer, chocolate, and waffles.
I wanted to go play in England because I had my UK passport (his father, Graham, was born in England). You have to play two years in the EIHL which is the league in the UK to be eligible for the national team. I played two years for the Nottingham Panthers, then was able to play my first world championships in Zagreb. I was able to play for the Rockford IceHogs which is the Chicago Blackhawks affiliate for a season which was a great experience. Then went back to the UK, then to Denmark and now I play in Wales for the Cardiff Devils."
Mosey, who played 108 games for Minnesota State during his four years with the Mavericks (2009-13), reached his goal of playing for Great Britain's national team, first in 2015-16 at the IIHF World D1B tournament. Then, by virture of its performance at the World D1A qualifying tournament in 2018, Great Britain qualified for the 2019 IIHF World Championship for the first time since 1994. And at the tournament, which was held in Slovakia May 10-26, the Brits placed 13th in earning a spot in next year's world championship with Mosey along for the ride.
"I would have to say it was the craziest experience in hockey I have ever had," said Mosey, who played in all seven games at the tournament. "It doesn’t hit you until you get there see the arena which is world class and walk around Kosice and see all the hockey fans. It’s insane you see groups of fans everywhere all repping different countries. Then walking around the rink you start to bump into all the NHL players that are there. It’s hard not to get a little star struck when you walk by Patrick Kane. It’s also hilarious cause half the guys on the team are joking around about playing against guys they had on their fantasy teams this year.
It’s a really hard tournament though. You are there to get a job done and it’s not going to be easy. We were pretty realistic that we weren’t going to beat a lot of the teams there. But we wanted to at least compete and work on our systems. We basically knew the Denmark game and France game were are two best options to stay up (in the top group). So being able to get that win against France was huge. Coming back from being 3-0 down just shows the work ethic and character this team has. It hasn’t really sunk in what we did as a team and what we did for this nation to promote the sport. But I’m super proud to be apart of this team. To be able to go back to back gold medals to get promotion to the top group and then cap that off with a win against France to stay is crazy. Never would I have thought that something like that could even be possible cause it’s never been done before."
"It great we stayed up, but everyone knows we aren’t done we obviously have next year to prepare for and it’s going to be extremely hard again to do the same thing. So for me I’m extremely happy to have played a role with team GB this year."
Having signed for another year in Cardiff, Mosey will continue his European adventure next year, along with another opportunity to represent the Union Jack at the World Championship, this time in Swtizerland at the 2020 IIHF World Championship.
