Oliver Bjorkstrand knows that Denmark is likely to be overlooked when people glance at the team pools for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
That won’t change how special the current opportunity is for the Tampa Bay Lightning forward and his fellow countrymen on a roster that boasts more NHL talent than ever before.
Bjorkstrand and Denmark face off against Team USA and Lightning forward Jake Guentzel at 3:10 p.m. on Saturday.
“It’s different expectations for Denmark and USA and Canada,” Bjorkstrand said before leaving for the Olympics.
“It’s a big tournament. You watch it growing up, and it's so cool to have the chance to be part of it. That in itself is really special. We’re going to go over there with the mentality that we're trying to win every game because you never know if anything crazy could happen, but it's just going to be a really cool experience.”
Denmark’s population is just over 6 million people, equal to approximately one-third of Florida. The country has produced quality NHL talent despite its small stature.
Bjorkstrand is playing for a Denmark team that includes the country’s all-time leading NHL scorer in Carolina Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers, Ottawa Senators veteran Lars Eller as well as Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen, the country’s winningest goalie.
The Lightning forward knows Andersen and Ehlers, and he’s also familiar with Ellers’ family. The 2026 Winter Olympics will be the first time Bjorkstrand gets to play alongside Eller—who is the only Danish NHLer to surpass 1,000 games played.
“I think there’s always a little bit of an expectation if you come from the NHL that you can elevate the team a little bit, but we have a lot of good players. So we need everybody to step up, and I think we can,” Bjorkstrand said from Italy on Monday.
Denmark finished fourth at the 2025 IIHF World Championships, the country’s highest-ever finish on the international stage. This year marks the country’s second-ever trip to the Olympics after Denmark finished seventh at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
The 2026 numbers don’t lie—Denmark has six NHLers on its roster this year, and seven Danish players have appeared in an NHL game in 2025-26.
“It’s grown in the sense that we’ve been able to get more players in better leagues in Europe over the years,” Bjorkstrand said of Danish hockey.
Before the 21st century, most Danish hockey players spent their entire careers playing in European leagues. Forward Frans Nielsen was the first reach the NHL with his debut for the New York Islanders in 2007, and 17 fellow Danish NHL players have followed.
Both Bjorkstrand and Nielsen hail from the town of Herning. Despite a population under 60,000 people, the municipality has churned out the NHL likes of Bjorkstrand and Nielsen as well as Andersen and former forwards Nicklas Jensen and Peter Regin.
This season Bjorkstrand joined Nielsen, Ehlers and Eller as Danish NHLers to reach 400 career points, and he passed Nielsen in career goals last season. Bjorkstrand has 182 career goals (third) and 411 points (fourth) in the NHL, approaching Eller in both categories on the all-time list among Danes.
Nielsen deserves a lot of credit for making that possible, according to Bjorkstrand.
“Frans, he really set the tone for all of Denmark. I mean, once you see that first player from a small country make it to the NHL, I think in Denmark it allowed everyone to think, ‘I can make it to the NHL.’ He was the first one, first goal, first everything. At least for me, I looked up to him, and that was kind of your first reality of, this could really happen.”
Bjorkstrand got to see Nielsen’s talent firsthand—a then 16-year-old Nielsen played one season semi-professionally in Denmark with Bjorkstrand’s father, and years later Bjorkstrand played alongside Nielsen on the Danish national team.
Bjorkstrand played in Denmark for nearly his entire youth hockey career, developing much of his game before leaving when he was 17 to play major junior hockey in the Western Hockey League for the Portland Winterhawks.
Nielsen sparked the NHL interest, and it continues to this day in Denmark.
“From there we started getting more and more,” Bjorkstrand said. “I think the most we've had in the league since then is maybe six at a time. So, in that sense it's grown. As far as how many people play hockey in Denmark? It's still fairly small. It's hard. I think it just costs a lot of money to get hockey rinks, and to build hockey you need more hockey rinks.”
Still, the sport has gained momentum. That makes Bjorkstrand's chance to play for Denmark even more special this February.
“It doesn't get out to as many people, but I like to think it's grown a little bit. To what extent, I don't know. But at least we’re able to produce more high-end talent in Europe and then we get more and more draft picks over the years. It’s been good. It's a positive thing.”
