HELSINKI — Miro Heiskanen‘s knee is back to 100 percent, and the Dallas Stars defenseman’s confidence is too.

And that is great news not only for the Stars, but for Finland as it prepares for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

“I’m 100 percent back to normal after the surgery,” Heiskanen said Monday. “I’ve been able to practice all summer as usual.”

Heiskanen had knee surgery Feb. 4 after a collision with Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone during a game Jan. 28. He missed the final 32 games of the regular season and the first 10 games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for Dallas, which lost to the Edmonton Oilers in five games in the Western Conference Final.

“The knee got some rest after last season, and now I can do everything 100 percent,” Heiskanen said. “My confidence is back where it used to be now that my knee can take all the practice and feels fine.”

In addition to time missed with the Stars, the injury prevented Heiskanen from playing for Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off in February; the Finns went 1-2-0 in the best-on-best international tournament without their No. 1 defenseman.

So it was a great sign to see him at Finland’s Olympic orientation camp Monday. Heiskanen and almost 50 other top Finland-born players from the NHL and different leagues across Europe gathered in Helsinki to kick off the Olympic season, in a way. The Finnish Ice Hockey Association and the Finnish Olympic Committee got the players together to hear, in general, about the Milano Cortina Olympics, because there will be many first-timers.

“It’s always nice to see Finnish players,” Heiskanen said. “We all know each other pretty well. We got some info about what will happen in Italy. Good to know things, don’t need to worry about what will happen.”

This will be the first time NHL players have participated in the Olympics since 2014.

Heiskanen, though, has some Olympic experience, playing for Finland at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. He scored one goal in five games as Finland last 1-0 to Canada in the quarterfinals and finished sixth.

“It was a great event,” he said. “No players from NHL that year, but it was still a great experience. Great memories. I suspect those Olympic experiences will help me now. I know what to expect, how everything works.”

Heiskanen is one of the six players already named as members of Team Finland for 2026, along with Stars teammates Mikko Rantanen and Esa Lindell, Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers, Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators and Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes.

They could be joined by some of the players who helped Finland win the gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. But with NHL players now part of the 2026 Olympics, it will be a different experience.

“No pressure from defending the gold medal,” Heiskanen said. “Of course we want to win again, but we don’t think about it too much. We take one game at a time.”

And having Heiskanen will help in that quest. He’s one of the top defensemen in the NHL and having him healthy will be big for Dallas and Finland.

The 26-year-old has 283 points (58 goals, 225 assists), 15th among NHL defensemen since he entered the League in 2018-19. He averaged 25:10 of ice time per game last season, fifth among NHL defensemen, and has averaged 24:30 per game during his seven seasons, eighth among NHL defensemen to play at least 200 games.

“Best defenseman in the NHL in my opinion,” Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger said in May when Heiskanen returned to the Stars lineup. “Whenever you can insert a guy like that, it’s obviously a huge boost.”