Brock Nelson will need to cancel his vacation plans for mid-February.

Instead, he’ll be in Montreal, then Boston, as a member of Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Nelson, who straddled the bubble for a roster spot, ended up on the right side of it in the final announcement, becoming the only Islander to be named to any of the four teams competing at hockey’s first best-on-best tournament since 2016.

Noah Dobson and Mat Barzal, both seen as potential candidates for Team Canada, were left off the roster, with Barzal’s exclusion likely due in large part to the injury which has kept him out for the last month.

Nelson, who has 10 goals and seven assists so far this season, made the team over flashier options at forward such as Canadiens winger Cole Caufield and Sabres center Tage Thompson, with his experience and two-way play winning out.

The native of Warroad, Minnesota is the first Islander to make Team USA in a best-on-best competition since Rick DiPietro, Mark Parrish and Jason Blake went to the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

As for a player whose chance at a 2022 Olympic spot was lost when the NHL pulled out of the Beijing Games due to pandemic concerns, the chance to represent the Stars and Stripes will be extraordinarily meaningful.

“I was super pumped when I got the call and [Team USA general manager] Billy [Guerin] informed me I was gonna make it. Super excited,” Nelson said on a Zoom call Wednesday night. “Happy to be a part and in consideration for something like this and to have the opportunity to be a part of it is special. … Any time you can represent your country, and obviously with the history of my grandpa and my uncle, it means a lot.”

Nelson’s extended family has deep ties to Team USA. His grandpa, Bill Christian, and his great-uncle, Roger Christian, won gold at Squaw Valley in 1960 while his uncle, Dave Christian, was part of the Miracle on Ice team at Lake Placid in 1980.

Another great-uncle, Gordon Christian, won silver at Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1956.

“It’s not discussed a lot [within the family], but I think anybody that knows the family and knows the history, knows a little about Warroad and the hockey culture, I think it gets talked about quite a bit,” Nelson said. “For me growing up, there wasn’t ever that conversation of having any pressure or anything like that to represent the country.

“And then as you get older, I remember the first couple times I was able to see the gold medals, the movie ‘Miracle’ comes out, you start to learn a little bit more about what my grandfather and my uncle accomplished in hockey and how important those events were. You started to see the significance and the importance of it a little bit more and appreciate it more and more as time’s passed.”

The perpetually underrated Nelson played for Team USA at numerous World Championships, including last summer, and won bronze at the World Junior Championship in 2011.

But best-on-best competition international competition — not seen since Team Canada defeated Team Europe at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey — is a different animal.

On a depth chart which also includes Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck as options down the middle, Nelson’s role is likely to be in Team USA’s bottom six, and he could potentially move to the wing, depending how coach Mike Sullivan sets his lines.

Though Nelson was left off most roster projections this summer, his strong start to the season combined with his veteran experience was likely the decisive factor.

Team USA’s roster skewed toward steadiness over flash at the bottom of its depth chart, with Chris Kreider, Trocheck and Zach Werenski being examples in addition to Nelson.

“Kreider and I were actually back on the World Junior team together back in Buffalo [in 2011],” Nelson said. “There’s a couple young guys that I haven’t really seen in person. It’ll be cool to get to know some of these guys and see them up close and watch their game. It’s an exciting thing. Happy to be a part of it. It’s gonna be awesome.”