Team Sweden today named the first 13 players for its 2019 IIHF World Championship squad and Devils forward Jesper Bratt made the cut.

Bratt was grinning from ear to ear when he spoke to newjerseydevils.com about

"It's awesome. It's going to be a lot of fun," said Bratt. "I've never played in a World Championship before so it's going to be awesome to come back to play with the team and play for my country."

Video: RAW | Jesper Bratt to play in World Championships

While in North America, the Stanley Cup is the ultimate prize, in Europe the World Championship is what the market pays the most attention to every year.

"Ever since when you were a kid growing up, you always watched the World Championship. I know how big of a deal this tournament is for the fans back in Sweden."

Tweet from @reporterchris: Sweden announces its first batch of commitments to the IIHF World Hockey Championship: pic.twitter.com/PHU4T24A1U

Bratt was injured at the beginning of March in a game against Columbus and didn't play again the rest of the season. It put his ability to play in the Worlds in question but he said he's now ready to go.

"Maybe in the beginning when it happened," Bratt said when asked if he thought the injury might keep him out of the annual tournament. "I didn't know how long the recovery time was going to be but I felt pretty quickly that I was going to be able to come back. I felt fresh and I'm really excited to get a second chance here."