The NHL-sanctioned World Cup of Hockey will take place in September and dotting the rosters of the eight teams participating will be four Florida Panthers skaters.
Aleksander Barkov and Jussi Jokinen will play for Finland. The two forwards skated on the same line, with phenom Patrik Laine, for their home country as it took silver at the recent IIHF World Championship in Russia.
Aaron Ekblad will be among the defense corps for Team North America, a squad comprised of players from Canada and the United States who are aged 23 or under.
Dmitry Kulikov returns to international duty as one of the blueliners on Team Russia.
All four of the Florida skaters will be in Group B for the preliminary round, with Sweden joining Finland, Team North America and Russia.
Group A will be comprised of Canada, the United States, the Czech Republic and Team Europe.
Each team will play its group opponents once with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semifinals.
This is first World Cup since 2004, when Canada won the tournament. The USA won the first Word Cup in 1996.