13 Blackhawks are representing 10 countries at the world championship beginning Friday in Slovakia

All things being equal, Alex DeBrincat would rather not be playing for the U.S. national team in this year’s world championship.

Or next year. Or ever.

Not that DeBrincat doesn’t appreciate great competition or take enormous pride in playing for his country. But every NHL player competing in the world championship in Slovakia this month has one thing in common: they’re no longer pursuing the Stanley Cup.

“Hopefully I won’t have to play this tournament too many times because we’re planning on being in the playoffs soon,” DeBrincat said.

Long playoff runs prevented the Blackhawks from being represented at the world championship for many years, but this year 10 players who spent time on the Hawks roster this season, as well as three prospects, will be in Slovakia in pursuit of a world title.

The current Hawks are DeBrincat and Patrick Kane (U.S.); Erik Gustafsson and Marcus Kruger (Sweden); Dylan Strome (Canada); Henri Jokiharju and Kevin Lankinen (Finland); Dominik Kahun (Germany); Andreas Martinsen (Norway) and Artem Anisimov (Russia).

The 16-country tournament begins Friday with the top four teams from each eight-team group advancing to a single-elimination bracket that begins May 23. The semifinals will be May 25 and the gold-medal game takes place the following day.

All the games in the tournament are scheduled to begin at 5 a.m., 9 a.m. or 1 p.m. Central time and many will be televised on NHL Network. The U.S. team will take on Slovakia at 1 p.m. Friday in their tournament opener.

DeBrincat and Kane, who is the captain of the U.S. team for the second straight season, will take on Kahun’s Germany squad on May 19, followed by Strome and Team Canada in their final round-robin game on May 21.

“It’s always fun when you’re playing with (Dylan),” DeBrincat said. “Not so much when you’re playing against him. But it’s cool to see them play for their country. Dom’s played for (Germany) plenty of times I’m sure, but it’s cool to see Dylan get some recognition at that level. He played world juniors twice but world championships is a little bit different.”

DeBrincat would know. He was on last year’s team that was blown out by eventual champion Sweden in the semifinals before rebounding to beat Canada 4-1 to take the bronze medal. Kane was named the MVP of last year’s tournament.

The U.S. has never won a world championship but is among the favorites this year with a roster featuring Kane, Jack Eichel, Johnny Gaudreau and Ryan Suter. Canada is led by John Tavares, Jonathan Marchessault and Mark Stone, while Russia has tremendous firepower in Alex Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov and Evgeny Kuznetsov. The Russians also have goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, whose Lightning team was a surprising first-round loser in the NHL playoffs.

The two players expected to be taken at the top of next month’s draft — Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko — are suiting up for U.S. and Finland, respectively. But none of the players the Hawks are looking at with the third overall pick, including Russia’s Vasili Podkolzin, is competing.

However, a couple of interesting Hawks prospects will be in Slovakia. Forward Philipp Kurashev, the Hawks’ fourth-round pick last year, is on Switzerland’s roster a few months after putting up a tournament-best six goals at the world juniors.

Also keep an eye on the Czech Republic’s Dominik Kubalik, a forward whose rights the Hawks obtained in January from the Kings for a 2019 fifth-round pick. Hawks general manager Stan Bowman said last month that Kubalik, 23, will sign and should be on the opening-day roster.

“We’re expecting him to be on the team,” Bowman said. “And where he fits is going to be the question.”

Forward Mathias From, the Hawks’ 2016 fifth-round pick who has not yet been signed, is on Denmark’s roster.

jgreenfield@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jcgreenx

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