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Niklas Edin is aiming to successfully defend the European Curling Championship title, although he doesn’t expect to cruise through the field this time around.

Edin ran the table at the event last year posting an overall 11-0 record despite having just formed a new team at the start of the season with third Oskar Eriksson, second Kristian Lindstroem and lead Christoffer Sundgren.

The reigning world champion from Karlstad, Sweden, believes it’s going to be a lot of fun at the Europeans but trickier now that the target is on their backs.

“We’re a bit more experienced now than last year but we really went on a roll last time so we’re going to try and repeat that,” Edin said. “I think the teams are going to play better against us this time. They know they have to play well to beat us now. I don’t expect it to go as easy as last time so we’re really going to have to fight really hard for playoffs first.”

Stepping off of the ice this past weekend at the National in Oshawa, Ont., Edin is looking out for Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud, who finished runner-up at the Europeans last year and had just qualified at the Pinty’s GSOC major event.

“The way Ulsrud is playing now, he’s going to be really tough to beat,” Edin said.

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For reigning women’s world champion Alina Paetz, just winning the Swiss playdowns was challenging enough as her team had to get through the likes of Tour Challenge Tier 1 winner Silvana Tirinzoni and last year’s European champion Binia Feltscher to qualify.

Pätz said during the Masters in Truro, N.S., last month she’s really excited for the opportunity for her team featuring third Nadine Lehmann, second Marisa Winkelhausen, and lead Nicole Schwaegli.

“It’s our first time to play in the European Championships,” she said. “We’re looking forward to it and hope to have a good time there.”

The European Curling Championships — starting Friday in Esbjerg, Denmark — will see the top eight women’s and top seven men’s teams from the tournament clinch spots for their nations at their respective world championships. Edin will take on the likes of Ulsrud, rising star Kyle Smith of Scotland and Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz while the women’s side is headlined by Scotland’s Eve Muirhead, Anna Sidorova of Russia and Sweden’s Cissi Ostlund.

There’s an extra incentive for the winners this year as they’ll also earn berths to the season-ending Pinty’s GSOC event, the Champions Cup. The brand new event — running April 26 to May 1, 2016, in Sherwood Park, Alta. — features all of the Pinty’s GSOC event winners from the year plus Brier and Scotties champions, world junior champions, and more.

The bonus will be nice but it’ll still be a long week in order to secure that berth and for Edin’s team they’ll have to come out stronger than they did at the National.

Edin had a slow start in Oshawa, losing his first two round-robin games before winning the next pair, but it wasn’t enough to make the playoffs as there were no tiebreakers required with eight teams ahead of him holding 3-1 records.

The desire to win a major tournament and be able to play in all of the Pinty’s GSOC events is a driving factor for Edin to do well at the Europeans.

“We’ve got to win something big to make that last Slam and that’s a big goal for us as well: to play all the Slams,” Edin said. “It’s a good opportunity but still a lot of games to play and a long week there so we really have to get ourselves together and we can’t have a bad start like we had here (in Oshawa). We’ve got to start well and then have an even better finish.”

Paetz also would like to play in the Champions Cup but isn’t getting too far ahead of herself just yet.

“It would be a great event, I’m sure it’ll be awesome,” she said. “First we have to win, we’ll see.”