Erik Karlsson, a seven-time NHL All-Star, has joined the ranks of North American sports stars investing in English football, becoming a part owner of Burton Albion.
The Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman is part of the Nordic Football Group (NFG) that took over the League One club on June 1.
Karlsson, 34, isn't the first NHL player to invest in English football. New Jersey Devils winger Ondrej Palat and Karlsson's mate, Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman, got involved with Plymouth Argyle when they were a League One club in 2022.
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Since then, they've been promoted to the Championship and avoided relegation from the second-tier last season. The club also brought on Wayne Rooney as its new head coach.
Plymouth managed to stay up at the expense of Birmingham City, who count Tom Brady among their minority owners and had Rooney as their manager for less than three months of the campaign. Brady's Birmingham will meet Karlsson's Burton in the upcoming season.
They'll also be playing against Wrexham, owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, following their second consecutive promotion. A year after winning the National League, the Welsh club secured second place in League Two, earning them a spot in the third tier.
Burton has seen a similarly rapid rise in recent seasons. After spending its first 59 years outside of the Football League, they made it to League Two in 2009 for the first time.
Six seasons in the fourth tier followed before Burton clinched the title in 2014-15 after back-to-back near misses in the play-offs.
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The club then reached the Championship after finishing second in their first season in League One. After surviving for another season in the second tier, they returned to League One, where they have remained.
NFG now takes control of a club that narrowly avoided returning to the fourth tier for the first time in almost a decade on the final day of last season. Karlsson confirmed his involvement in the new investor group in a phone call with Swedish newspaper "Sportbladet."
"Yes, I received a request from the ownership group Nordic Football Group about a year ago, and this past weekend, everything became clear," Karlsson explained in quotes translated into English from Swedish.
"It will be a lot of fun. I have a good grasp of sports in general, but I'm looking forward to learning about how it works in the football world and on the ownership side.
"There is a lot of excitement to work within a club like this, not just in terms of men's football."
Karlsson added: "Burton is my new favourite team. In the past, Arsenal has been my team. I followed them very closely in the '90s and early '00s, and now, in recent years, I have regained interest. Now I hope to see Burton play against Arsenal at some point."