Kazakhstan wants to improve its best result in World Championship history. The team coached by Andrei Nazarov will take part for the eighth time and a 12th-place finish is to be beaten.

This time Kazakhstan got powerful enhancement. After defenceman Kevin Dallman, three more North Americans who have been playing for years for Kazakh KHL team Barys Astana were naturalized and received Kazakh citizenship with forwards Brandon Bochenski, Dustin Boyd and Nigel Dawes. Bochenski and Dallman already spent their sixth season in Kazakhstan, the other two their fifth.

While Dallman has already helped the team earn promotion by winning the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A in Poland, the others could play for Kazakhstan for the first time and are part of the candidates’ list Nazarov announced on Thursday.

Bochenski has been playing for Barys since 2010 and has collected 341 points (143 goals, 198 assists) for the Kazakh KHL team. One year later he was joined by Boyd and Dawes, who both passed the 200-point mark. Together they form one of the most successful lines in the Kontinental Hockey League.

Another player who recently received Kazakh citizenship is Russian-born Vladimir Markelov. He spent most of his career in his hometown of Novosibirsk before moving to Kazakhstan where he has spent a couple of years in the Barys Astana system. He played 19 KHL games this season and 26 games in the Kazakh league for Arlan Kokshetau.