It will be the Danish NHL players who are called upon to lead the national team to success at next year's Winter Olympics in Northern Italy.
Each of the 12 participating countries has pre-selected six players for their Olympic team on Monday, and in Denmark's case it is five players from the world's strongest league, the NHL, as well as national team captain Jesper Jensen Aabo, says the Danish Ice hockey federation in a press release.
The five NHL players are Frederik Andersen, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Lars Eller, Jonas Rondbjerg and Nikolaj Ehlers.
At the World Championships in May, Denmark reached the semi-finals for the first time, as Rondbjerg and Ehlers were added to the Denmark squad during the tournament when their respective NHL teams were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Its not always that NHL players are allowed to participate in world championships, but with the upcoming Olympics, space has been made in the match calendar for all the world's best players to potentially participate.
Keeper Frederik Andersen is happy about the advance commitment of a place in the Olympic squad.
"The Olympics will be a huge experience for all of us. For my own part, the Olympics were my first real encounter with international ice hockey."
"As a little boy, I sat and followed the Olympic games in Nagano in 1998, where the Czechs won it all. Now it is almost unreal that I myself can look forward to participating in an Olympics", says Frederik Andersen, who starred between the goalposts, when Denmark secured the Olympic ticket in September last year.
Captain Jesper Jensen Aabo, was contrary to the strong goalkeeper also part of Denmark's Olympic squad in 2022, and he is looking forward to another Olympic experience.
"It will be great for us to be able to build on the experiences we had at the World Championships in Herning and Stockholm in May. All things came together for us, the fans and the atmosphere, and we will hopefully continue that with a strong performance at the Winter Olympics", he says.
Injuries could, however, potentially make it difficult for one of the six preset ice hockey players to make it to the Olympics. The final squad will be selected at the beginning of 2026.