For the selectors of the Canadian, Russian and Swedish men’s hockey teams, with their abundance of talent, the hard part of filling an Olympic roster is figuring out which top players to leave out. But the selector of the German Olympic team faces a different predicament: he actually wants to leave out some of his most talented players.

“It’s a bit of a tightrope act,” said Uwe Krupp, Germany’s coach and the man who will choose the squad. “We can’t simply take all our N.H.L. players just because they’re N.H.L. players. What about the guys who were here all through the qualifying process and got us into the Olympics? Do I tell them to just step aside?”

The International Ice Hockey Federation’s deadlines for announcing Olympic rosters fall between Christmas and New Year, ahead of the Winter Games in February in Vancouver. But unlike the powerhouses of world hockey, second-tier countries like Germany, currently 12th in the I.I.H.F. world rankings, behind Norway and just ahead of Denmark, must find a more delicate balance than simply picking the best players with the appropriate passport.

“We have 10 players in the N.H.L. and A.H.L., but none of them took part in qualifying,” Krupp said, referring to the brief tournament in Hanover, Germany, last February that got Germany into the Olympics with nail-biting 2-1 victories against Austria and Slovenia. All the players on that German roster were domestically based.