“This is the deepest player pool we’ve ever had,” he told the Globe in advance of the Olympic tournament. “This is the most elite talent that we’ve ever had. You could say it for Canada. You could say it for Sweden. You could say it for Finland. These teams are stacked, they’re stacked. It’s not just us.”

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The return of NHL players to the Winter Olympics, a dozen years in the making, should make for the fastest and most skilled international tournament ever held. The advances in hockey training since 2014 have made players better than ever.

A whole generation grew up and became NHL stars while the league sat out. Team USA’s Jack Hughes noted that his teammates in their mid-careers — Jack Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, Auston Matthews — should be on their third Games by now.

“We’ve been waiting, our generation, pretty much the whole of our careers to play at the Olympics,” said 29-year-old David Pastrnak, drafted by the Bruins a few months after Sochi 2014. “For a kid in Europe, you don’t have much chance to watch NHL because of the time change, so all you do is watch the Olympics and the national team. It’s an amazing feeling. Enjoying every day. I want it to start, but at the same time I know when it starts, it’s going to go fast.”

Consider Brad Marchand’s road to the Games. Drafted in 2006, he had yet to reach the NHL when his native Canada won gold in 2010. He had made a name for himself as a Bruin, but wasn’t considered Olympic-quality in 2014. He was reaching superstar status when the NHL pulled out of the 2018 Games. He was dismayed when the league did the same in 2022.

At 37, he’ll get his chance.

“It’s the ultimate goal for a hockey player,” Marchand said after being chosen for Team Canada. “It’s one thing to hope and dream to play in the NHL, but this is just a different level.”

Former Bruins captain Brad Marchand will get his chance to compete for a gold medal with Canada.Gregory Shamus/Getty

In a hockey nation, Olympic results change the conversation. The Americans’ 1980 run became the stuff of Disney films. In 1998, the Czechs proved that they could hang with hockey’s heavyweights. The Swedes beam with pride about 2006, and the Canadians’ crash-out that year — they finished an embarrassing seventh — set the stage for a program overhaul that helped them strike gold in 2010 and 2014.

“It’s a special [experience],” said Canada captain Sidney Crosby, who built his legacy at both of those tournaments. “Not only representing hockey but the entire Team Canada and celebrating sports. There’s expectations and there’s pressure that comes with it, but it’s about our group trying to be the best team we can.”

This is the time for Connor McDavid, who has come up short in his Stanley Cup quest but helped Canada to a 4 Nations crown, to have a career-defining tournament. The same could be said for Nathan MacKinnon, who was named 4 Nations MVP and is the odds-on favorite for the Hart Trophy.

The NHL sent 147 players to Milan, representing all 32 teams. Every team played between 55 and 59 games before the break, a few more than usual. For the stars, the rest of the season will be a grind.

Santagiulia Arena, the main rink here, will host two games Wednesday and three games daily from Thursday to Sunday. NHL owners are no doubt nervous about sending their best and brightest to Milan. The Islanders’ fortunes changed after John Tavares broke his leg in 2014. The Senators’ John Muckler believed a Dominik Hasek injury in 2006 cost them the Stanley Cup.

Hockey fans, though, crave best-on-best. The 4 Nations final between Canada and the United States was the second-most-watched hockey game in North America in 10 years (16.1 million viewers, 200,000 behind Game 7 of the 2024 Edmonton-Florida Stanley Cup Final). One in every four Canadians watched it, according to NHL.com.

A United States-Canada final would be a ratings bonanza.

“You gotta step on the gas from the opening faceoff,” Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman said. “Doesn’t matter who’s on the ice: Italy, Slovakia, it doesn’t matter.”

If you’re looking for a dark horse, why not Pastrnak and the Czechs? He was perhaps the best player in the NHL from Jan. 1 to the Olympic break: 5-22–27 in 15 games. He can put a team on his back, as Hasek did in Nagano in 1998.

“I think he’s a once-in-a-generation type talent,” Bruins teammate Charlie McAvoy said in the lead-up. “As far as this era that I get to be in right now, I think he’ll be remembered as one of the best.”

Over the next two weeks, he, among many here, can prove it.

The Patriots lose Super Bowl LX to the Seahawks in a beatdown by the Bay. Boston Globe Sports Report is live from San Francisco to break everything down.

Matt Porter can be reached at matthew.porter@globe.com. Follow him on BlueSky at mattyports.bsky.social.