Andrej Sekera would love nothing more than to play for Slovakia in the World Cup of Hockey.
Sekera takes pride in playing for his country and takes advantage of every opportunity to do so. That's why the Edmonton Oilers defenseman joined Slovakia at the World Championship in Russia after the NHL season.
But Slovakia won't have a team at the World Cup. Sekera's only chance to compete in it will be if he plays for Team Europe, a collection of players from countries not included in the World Cup. With a choice between playing and not playing, Sekera chose to accept Team Europe's invitation to play when it named its first 16 players in March.
"Definitely would like to play for your country, but obviously, our country and our hockey is not in very good shape, and it's been there for a while," Sekera said during the recent World Championship in Russia. "We won't do anything with it. I don't think we'll have any Slovakia team in the World Cup any time soon.
"It's a big honor for me to play for Team Europe. There's really a lot of good players. It'll be a lot of fun, and I'll try to enjoy everything. It's kind of weird [to not play for a specific country], but on the other hand, it's the beauty of the team."
Sekera's thoughts and feelings were shared by most of those at the World Championship who will be involved with Team Europe or Team North America at the World Cup. They don't know exactly what it's going to be like to not play for their respective countries in a world competition, but they're excited to figure that out, and they believe they'll be just as driven to win.
"It's definitely a little bit of a different setup, obviously," said Leon Draisaitl, who played for Germany at the World Championship and will play for Team Europe at the World Cup. "You don't play for your country, but still we play for your team. I guess we play for Europe. It'll be a great experience. I think it'll be a lot fun."
Part of the oddity is having players from various countries team up to take down specific countries. Team Europe's preliminary roster included players from Slovakia, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Norway. Team North America has under-24 players from the United States and Canada.
Team Europe general manager Miroslav Satan said he has found that players throughout Europe are receptive to playing in the World Cup.
"It is a new thing, so we don't really know how this is going to work out, but so far we've had really good reaction, strong reaction," Satan said. "Players want to be there. They don't care. They just want to be there and compete and make this work and make this Team Europe as competitive as possible. I hope the outcome will be positive, and we'll have a strong, competitive team that will challenge all of these other good teams."
Some players, such as the United States' Dylan Larkin and Canada's Connor McDavid, were competitors at the World Championship but will be teammates at the World Cup. They will be going up against players they've had as national team teammates before. Larkin is looking forward to those two elements of the World Cup.
"I think it will be cool to play against the U.S.," Larkin said. "If we do ... I think it will be cool to play against them, some of our national teammates, and try to showcase myself to hopefully one day make that team."
McDavid hopes a few more Canadians will join him on Team North America by the time the final roster selections are made.
"There's a lot of good, young players on this Team Canada," McDavid said. "It'd be great to see some of those guys named to that team. It's a little bit of a different setup, but at the same time, there's a lot of good, young players. They'll be able to put together a decent team."
Satan and Team North America co-general manager Stan Bowman were at the World Championship to evaluate talent ahead of this week's deadline to name the remainder of their respective World Cup teams.
Denmark's Lars Eller and Nikolaj Ehlers, Belarus' Mikhail Grabovski, Slovakia's Marian Gaborik, Germany's Christian Ehrhoff, Thomas Greiss and Tobias Rieder, and Switzerland's Luca Sbisa and Nino Niederreiter are among the players who could still be added to Team Europe.
For Team North America, U.S. forward Auston Matthews, the possible No. 1 pick in the upcoming NHL draft, could be among those who make the final cut.
"He's an incredible talent," Bowman said. "It's fun to get to know him a little bit here with the U.S. team and just seeing what he can do. He's got a lot of really unique abilities. For such a young kid, he can do a lot. He's not just a skilled player. He competes both when he doesn't have the puck and when he does have it. He works hard to get back. He's just everything you want in a hockey player. It's neat to be around him."
Bowman, like Satan with his team, is confident Team North America will have what it takes to compete with the world's best hockey countries.
"The thing you learn throughout the process is just how many really good players there are that are young," Bowman said. "I think more than anything this game is built toward young players with the speed of the game. You get a lot of excitement, and you get a lot of enthusiasm out of young guys. I think that's the one thing I've noticed: that these guys want to compete against the best, and they want to be a part of something special like that."