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“He was a big surprise and ended up being one of top four defencemen right through the tournament. He’s going to help our team, in giving us a two-way game. He’s a tough player both physically and mentally. He’s a good tournament player.”

Krueger will lean heavily on Nashville’s Roman Josi and beyond that an aging Zdeno Chara. But the rest of the European defence is a collection of veteran NHL blueliners with considerable mileage on their odometers — Christian Ehrhoff, Mark Streit, Dennis Seidenberg and Andrej Sekera. That leaves Sbisa and Josi as the only European defenders under the age of 30.

“Luca was definitely selected as somebody who is going to play in the tournament,” Krueger said. “One D and one forward will have to sit. But all things being normal, I’d expect Luca to play. I have no fear that he defensively can’t play up against everybody and he’ll be a good player when he comes in for us. Every team will be laden right through the lineup with talented individuals, so you can’t worry too much about matchups. He’ll definitely be more of a penalty-killing defenceman for us, but five-on-five I’m not worried about him.”

Krueger, who spent the 2012-13 season as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, has no fears about Jannik Hansen either. Nor should he. The Dane broke out with a career-high 22-goals last season, and Krueger’s excited about the role he can play for Team Europe.

“If you look at his two-way game, he’s going to be a very important player for us in both directions,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of right-handed shots, so that helps. When I was in Edmonton, I really liked him already. And when I look at Jannik, he could be a big surprise in this tournament. He has elite speed and that’s going to be important in this tournament. He has so much to offer. He’s just a very complete individual who has strong character, and he can be a strong physical presence for us too.”