We're continuing our 4 Nations Face-Off roster prediction series with Team Sweden. Honestly, I like the makeup of the Swedish roster. High end talent with some forwards that can play physical and great defensively. Again, there is a lot of no brainer picks here that don’t need much explanation. The 4th line wingers is really where the question marks are.
Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
Jesper Bratt | Elias Pettersson | Bill Nylander |
Filip Forsberg | Mika Zibanejad | Adrian Kempe |
Joel Eriksson Ek | Elias Lindholm | Lucas Raymond |
Mikael Backlund | William Karlsson | Gus Nyquist |
Extra: William Ekelund
The top nine forwards and William Karlsson are probably set in stone at this point. Elias Lindholm has had a slow start for the Bruins this season and has almost worked his way out of a spot on this team in my opinion, for younger, more talented players like Wiliam Ekelund or Leo Carlsson, but l would still expect to see his name on the starting roster come opening day given the amount of success he's had at the NHL level in the past. Eklund and Carlsson have had flashes of bright spots, but overall I don’t think they have the experience to make the squad and make an impact like the other guys listed.
I slid in Nyquist because he's a veteran forward that has proven that he’s still got what it takes the be an effective player in the NHL. He's joined by Mikael Backlund on the fourth line left wing who is a proven leader and excellent defensive forward. They'll need his services going up against a ton of guys with ample scoring abilities in this tournament.
Other names you might see on this list on a lower line role could be Rasmussen. A big body on the red wings that has improved year after year could make a case for a 4th line spot for a checking role.
Left Defence | Right Defence |
Victor Hedman | Erik Karlsson |
Rasmus Dahlin | Rasmus Andersson |
Gustav Forsling | Adam Larsson |
Extras: Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Jonas Brodin
The defence is pretty self explanatory. I’m not sure where Erik Karlsson's game will be at come tournament time, so that is a question mark, but he will have a loaded defensive core to back him up so that should be of help to him. This is one of the better defensive squads in the tournament. Size, skill, and toughness. Lots of experience between most of these guys and they have all proven themselves. I slotted Larsson on the 6th defence spot since they are already loaded with guys that can carry and move the puck so well. Larsson would provide that shutdown/checking role on defence which is going to be very important with the amount of skill that will be on display at this tournament. Other guys you may see are Brodin or OEL as they have proven they still can perform with the best of em. Gustav Forsling has been underrated for a while now but was a staggering +56 last season against top competition, playing 23 minutes per night. Forsling and Larsson should prove to be quite the effective shutdown pairing in this tournament.
Goalie |
Jacob Markstrom |
Linus Ullmark |
Filip Gustavsson |
Markstrom and Ullmark are pretty much locked in as the number 1 and 2 netminders for team, so the third spot will be where the battle begins. I believe it is a 3 way race between Gustavsson of the wild, Forsberg of Ottawa and Ersson from the flyers. All of these guys have had their moments in the NHL but I have liked the looks of Gustavsson the most thus far.
Stay tuned for Team USA
コメント