Research in athlete’s development pathways have mostly considered whether they should sample or specialize while acknowledging the importance of the context. The purpose of this case study was to explore the conditions during childhood and adolescence that contributed to the develop-ment of five National Hockey League (NHL) -players that were born in 1989. We engaged in a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews, and to support our findings we employed a developmental framework. Our results demonstrated that the players grew up in a time where Danish ice hockey prospered, which affected all parts of the ice hockey community. Throughout their childhood they were surrounded by strong familiar relations in terms of family and ice hockey community. The coaches made it possible for the players to thrive in a limited developmental envi-ronment by letting them train upward and play many matches. The Swedish hockey gymnasium provided a rich environment for development and served as an intermediate station prior to the NHL. To summarize, the players took advantage of any given opportunity combined with a growing ice hockey environment. This study contributes with deep insight into the conditions of a collection of Danish NHL-players born in 1989.