There is no bigger German male athlete here than Draisaitl, the NHL’s all-time leading scorer among players from his country with 1,036 points (428 goals, 608 assists) in 845 games. It’s a statement that can be made definitively because he was selected as Germany’s flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremony via a vote of fans and members of the German Olympic team.

Ski jumper Katharina Schmid joined him in that honor on Friday.

“It speaks for itself that he got voted to be our flag-bearer,” defenseman Moritz Seider (Detroit Red Wings) said. “There are great other performers and they won Olympic medals, but he’s our big star and we put all the praise on him because he deserves it.”

Draisaitl wears it with pride.

“It’s really, really special getting to represent your country and carry the flag out at maybe the biggest sporting event in the world,” he said. “It is something I don’t take for granted, something I don’t take lightly and something that I’m certainly very proud of.”

His pride will swell if he can help Germany do something special here on the ice. That happened without him in PyeongChang in 2018, when the Germans reached the gold medal game only to lose 4-3 in overtime to the Olympic Athletes of Russia.

NHL players did not participate at that Olympics, but it remains a pivotal point for German hockey.

Germany had previously not earned better than a bronze medal at the Olympics, and it was the country’s first medal of any kind since 1976.

“We won silver,” Seider said. “I was still in school. You see the spirit around, the hype that it’s getting. Those are the moments you dream about and you’re like, ‘Alright, I want to be a part of that.’”

Now imagine Germany finding its way to the medal stand, or at the very least putting a scare into one of the big boys of international hockey, with its biggest star on the Olympic stage leading the way, and young stars like Seider, Tim Stutzle (Ottawa Senators), JJ Peterka (Utah Mammoth) and Josh Samanski (Oilers) also playing important roles.

It would be massive, even bigger than 2018. It would arguably be the most important moment in German hockey history.

It would also mean Draisaitl delivered on his stated goal of pushing the sport more into the mainstream in his home country.

“For us, it’s time to get kids in Germany to love hockey and enjoy it and enjoy watching it,” Draisaitl said, “and this is a great stage to do that.”