The road to gold in Gothenburg, Sweden is just days away. Team Sweden has had their roster announced for quite some time now, and they are bringing a star-studded lineup to this year’s tournament. Sweden is looking to win gold in front of their home crowd, but it will not be an easy challenge with Team USA and Team Canada boasting talented rosters. The week-and-a-half-long tournament begins on Dec. 26, and it’s an annual tradition for many hockey fans around the world.
The roster consists of a few highly touted NHL-draft-eligible players and a lot of recently drafted players. Sweden’s recent struggles in the tournament, like being considered a favourite in the mid-to-late 2010s, to the present day where they are a team that might finish in the bronze medal round, have plagued them for years. This Swedish group will look to break from their past struggles and give their home crowd something they will talk about for many years to come.
This is the first time since 2014 that Sweden has hosted the tournament. They battled it out for gold against Team Finland, but they fell short and won silver in front of their home crowd. Sweden has struggled to find success since the 2014 tournament, winning one more silver medal and two bronze medals since then. The roster doesn’t have Leo Carlsson, but they do have some notable players like Elias Salomonsson, Axel Sandin Pellikka, Tom Willander, Otto Stenberg, Filip Bystedt, and Hugo Havelid. Sweden is highlighted by talented players, and it is up to them to perform to a gold medal standard this year.
Sweden’s Starter Havelid Looks To Raise His NHL Draft Stock
An interesting storyline for Team Sweden is their goaltending position. They have two NHL-drafted goaltenders on the roster, Melker Thelin and Kevin Reidler. Havelid is currently projected as their starting goaltender, but the other two rostered goalies, Thelin and Reidler, could surprise the team and outplay Havelid. When it comes to Havelid’s performance, he has found success at the international level previously. He had a great U18 performance a couple of years ago, posting a 4-1-0 record combined with a .929 save percentage and a 2.41 goals-against average.
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Where Havelid runs into some issues is his age, he is a year younger than both of the other goaltenders. This may not be an issue if he can continue to exceed expectations. While he has been passed up on before in the NHL…
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