WC: 2015 — Team Sweden

[Franck]

I know there's a roster thread on the Sweden forum already, but we may as well get one going in this forum as well, especially now that the tournament is getting closer and we can be quite certain about which teams will miss the playoffs in the NHL.

What are your thoughts on potential rosters?

My first attempt, based on current NHL standings:

Gabriel Landeskog - Mika Zibanejad - Oscar Möller
Linus Klasen - Elias Lindholm - Fredrik Pettersson
Andreas Johnson - Victor Rask - André Pettersson
Jimmie Ericsson - Andreas Engqvist - David Ullström
Simon Hjalmarsson

Jonas Brodin - Erik Karlsson
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Adam Larsson
Staffan Kronwall - John Klingberg
Patrik Hersley

Robin Lehner
Anders Nilsson
Henrik Karlsson
​

Excluded pending free agents that are unlikely to be signed before the tournament like Enroth and Fasth, aside from that I am working on the assumption that nobody declines an invite.

Defence looks really good, aside from that I think this team really needs at least one of Detroit or Washington to get eliminated in the first round to be really good. It's desperately weak at centre and based on past behaviour and media comments both Zetterberg and Bäckström seem like guys who are unlikely to decline an invite if they are healthy. Marcus Johansson and Gustav Nyquist would be nice additions as well, though they are both pending RFA's and not likely to participate unless they sign new contracts before the tournament. Hell, even Burakovsky would be a sexier name than some of the Europe-based wingers.

Click to read more...

 

[Eye of Ra]

Looking at the current NHL-Standings:

Omark - Ericsson - Möller
Klasen - Rask - Pettersson
Landeskog - Zibanejad - Lindholm
Johnson - Wandell - Sörensen

Karlsson - OEL
Klingberg - Larsson
Brodin - Klefbom
Rahimi - Hersley

Enroth
Lehner
Fasth

 

[Eye of Ra]

Excluded pending free agents that are unlikely to be signed before the tournament like Enroth and Fasth

Well, the WC could be a good market for them.

 

[Franck]

Well, the WC could be a good market for them.

The risk of injury is too great.

 

[jfc64]

What are your thoughts on potential rosters?

Gabriel Landeskog - Henrik Zetterberg - Gustav Nyquist
Joakim Lindström - Mikael Backlund - Oscar Möller
Simon Hjalmarsson - Jimmie Ericsson - Elias Lindholm
Andreas Thuresson - Joel Lundqvist - Mika Zibanejad
André Petersson - Johan Larsson


Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Erik Karlsson
Niklas Kronwall - Staffan Kronwall
Oscar Klefbom - Henrik Tallinder
Daniel Rahimi - Jonas Brodin


Jhonas Enroth
Anders Lindbäck
Anders Nilsson

​

 

[EK47]

Gabriel Landeskog - Mika Zibanejad - Elias Lindholm
Linus Omark - Jimmie Ericsson - Oscar Möller
Dick Axelsson - Andreas Engqvist - David Ullström
Simon Hjalmarsson - Mattias Sjögren - Fredrik Pettersson / Linus Klasen
Martin Thörnberg - Andreas Thuresson


Oliver Ekman-Larsson / John Klingberg - Erik Karlsson
Patrik Hersley - Jonas Fransson
Oscar Klefbom - Jonas Brodin
Daniel Rahimi - Staffan Kronwall / Jonas Junland
Nicklas Grossmann - Adam Larsson


Jhonas Enroth
Robin Lehner / Viktor Fasth
Anders Nilsson / Henrik Karlsson / Anton Forsberg

​

It looks like we will have solid goaltending, that's nice.

Please MÃ¥rts no Junland he is terrible.

 

[Franck]

Nicklas Grossmann

 

[jfc64]

Sedin - Sedin - Zetterberg
(Grossmann) - Karlsson

 

[jfc64]

New defense lines:

Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Erik Karlsson
Patrik Hersley - Jonas Brodin
Daniel Rahimi - Staffan Kronwall
Nicklas Grossmann - Adam Larsson / Jonas Fransson

 

[Eye of Ra]

I really hope S.Hjalmarsson does not make the WC team.

He will not produce points, and not physicality.

Just good defence and hard work, pointless having such a player when we have so many others that can bring more.

New defense lines:

Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Erik Karlsson
Patrik Hersley - Jonas Brodin
Daniel Rahimi - Staffan Kronwall
Nicklas Grossmann - Adam Larsson / Jonas Fransson

Oscar Klefbom is the best defender in Oilers. He should have a spot. Same with John Klingberg. Folin and Granberg?

 

[jfc64]

I really hope S.Hjalmarsson does not make the WC team.

He will not produce points, and not physicality.

Just good defence and hard work, pointless having such a player when we have so many others that can bring more.

Oscar Klefbom is the best defender in Oilers. He should have a spot. Same with John Klingberg. Folin and Granberg?

I remember when the Olympic team was discussed lately. Simon Hjalmarsson's name appeared more than not. He is small, but he also was a part of the best Swedish offfensive line in SHL the last few years (Hjalmarsson - Sjögren - Arlbrandt). He is getting better and better this season after injury.

A problem for Team Sweden is the vast number of small, talented, point-producing players like Möller, Pettersson, Omark, Klasen, Hjalmarsson etc. There's probably only room for two or three on a World Championship team.

Nice to hear about Klefbom! But four european defenders is a minimum. And we all know what Karlsson, Ekman-Larsson and Brodin are capable of. On a WC team you must have proven players. But when invitations start to be turned down it's nice that we have players like Klefbom, and Klingberg etc.

Rask is an interresting name. We need more alternatives as centers and he's quite big and may form a line with Lindholm.

 

[EK47]

I remember when the Olympic team was discussed lately. Simon Hjalmarsson's name appeared more than not. He is small, but he also was a part of the best Swedish offfensive line in SHL the last few years (Hjalmarsson - Sjögren - Arlbrandt). He is getting better and better this season after injury.

A problem for Team Sweden is the vast number of small, talented, point-producing players like Möller, Pettersson, Omark, Klasen, Hjalmarsson etc. There's probably only room for two or three on a World Championship team.

Nice to hear about Klefbom! But four european defenders is a minimum. And we all know what Karlsson, Ekman-Larsson and Brodin are capable of. On a WC team you must have proven players. But when invitations start to be turned down it's nice that we have players like Klefbom, and Klingberg etc.

Rask is an interresting name. We need more alternatives as centers and he's quite big and may form a line with Lindholm.

Having Karlsson quarterbacking one pp and klingberg the other would be filthy!

 

[Eye of Ra]

Rask is an interresting name. We need more alternatives as centers and he's quite big and may form a line with Lindholm.

Maybe Anton Lander can be a name? He has 10 points in 20 NHL games.

Another name is Everberg in Colorado, the Avalance fans seems impressed with him: http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1752109&page=7

Also: Josefsson, J.Larsson, Wennberg, Nylander.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Nice to hear about Klefbom! But four european defenders is a minimum. And we all know what Karlsson, Ekman-Larsson and Brodin are capable of. On a WC team you must have proven players. But when invitations start to be turned down it's nice that we have players like Klefbom, and Klingberg etc.

.

Why not choose the best players? OEL, EK, Klingberg, Brodin is already proven with MÃ¥rts. Only Klefbom and Larsson is not proven.

This D-corp:

OEL - Karlsson
Klingberg - Larsson
Klefbom - Brodin (chemistry)
Rahimi - Ahnelöv (grit pair with chemistry from last WC)

vs:

OEL - Karlsson
Gustavsson - Kronwall
Hersley - Fransson
Rahimi - Ahnelöv

The first d-corp can give us gold, the second d-corp can give a bronze-medal match.

I want the gold.

 

[Eye of Ra]

I remember when the Olympic team was discussed lately. Simon Hjalmarsson's name appeared more than not. He is small, but he also was a part of the best Swedish offfensive line in SHL the last few years (Hjalmarsson - Sjögren - Arlbrandt). He is getting better and better this season after injury.

A problem for Team Sweden is the vast number of small, talented, point-producing players like Möller, Pettersson, Omark, Klasen, Hjalmarsson etc. There's probably only room for two or three on a World Championship team.

.

Well, Hjalmarsson is not by any means better than Klasen, Möller, Pettersson, Omark, E.Lindholm, Landeskog and even Petersson, Bergfors in scoring role.

In checking unit he is not better than Thuresson, Ridderwall, Ullström, Johansson, Thörnberg, Axelsson. He does not have these guys physicality and size. I would even prefer Sörensen and Johnson becuse of their youth swag style that would cause panic for our opponents.


Battle of centers:

Zibanejad
Jimmie
Rask
Wandell
Engqvist
Lander
Sjögren
Everberg
J.Larsson
Josefsson
Wennberg
Nylander


Battle of goalies:

Enroth
Lehner
Fasth
Nilsson
Karlsson
Backlund
Owuya
Svensson
Alsenfeldt
Lindbäck


So many good goalies...

 

[ulvvf]

A problem for Team Sweden is the vast number of small, talented, point-producing players like Möller, Pettersson, Omark, Klasen, Hjalmarsson etc. There's probably only room for two or three on a World Championship team.

Nice to hear about Klefbom! But four european defenders is a minimum. And we all know what Karlsson, Ekman-Larsson and Brodin are capable of. On a WC team you must have proven players. But when invitations start to be turned down it's nice that we have players like Klefbom, and Klingberg etc.

Rask is an interresting name. We need more alternatives as centers and he's quite big and may form a line with Lindholm.

Klasen is a lock, I would almost have him in my olympic team. He can play in all lines, he show that in the last WC where he was probably the best swedish player in my eyes even if he started in the 4th line there.

Why is 4 european defenders a minimum?

Rask? hasnt really stand out this year to me, at least not when I have watch him. I like a player like Zibanejad a lot more than him, and even his team mate Lindholm.

The best realistic center from NHL is probably Söderberg, otherwise why not give Nylander a chance if he preform good in AHL? I said the same thing about Forsberg last year, top young players at this age can preform very well, in many cases better then they do when they gets older and tired. I think Nylander could very well be huge succes in WC. Remeber MPS for a example. At that age they have more energy left over after a long season and are moving up in their carrer and have something to prove, so they can very well be at their best in the national team when they are around 20.

 

[GWNR]

Should be cool to see OEL and Karlsson play together. Hope they both play

 

[EK47]

Should be cool to see OEL and Karlsson play together. Hope they both play

We saw that in the olympics. Unfortunately it resulted in OEL getting benched. He was most likely supposed to take the more defensive role on that pairing he didn't, Karlsson got paired with Edler who complemented Karlsson well. OEL then became the 7th defenseman because MÃ¥rts did not want to break Kronwall - Ericsson or Hjalmarsson - Oduya.

 

[ulvvf]

We saw that in the olympics. Unfortunately it resulted in OEL getting benched. He was most likely supposed to take the more defensive role on that pairing he didn't, Karlsson got paired with Edler who complemented Karlsson well. OEL then became the 7th defenseman because MÃ¥rts did not want to break Kronwall - Ericsson or Hjalmarsson - Oduya.

I think it worked very well, people just focus way way to much on that he last his balance a couple of times.

The stats also supported that it worked good, he had 3 p in limited ice time and he togheter with Karlsson didnt let any goal in against us.

 

[jka*]

Linus Omark - Jimmie Ericsson - Oscar Möller
new player - Dick Axelsson - new player
Simon Hjalmarsson - Mattias Sjögren - Fredrik Pettersson
Gabriel Landeskog - Vikctor Rask - Linus Klasen

Pure class.

 

[jfc64]

Should be cool to see OEL and Karlsson play together. Hope they both play

The safest bet on a defense pairing there is! As long as not Getzlaf and Perry is on the other side.

 

[jfc64]

The best realistic center from NHL is probably Söderberg

Yeah, we probably need one like Söderberg or better. +2 on Florida for 8th spot.

 

[EK47]

Will Lundqvist finally not be selected?

 

[EK47]

I think it worked very well, people just focus way way to much on that he last his balance a couple of times.

The stats also supported that it worked good, he had 3 p in limited ice time and he togheter with Karlsson didnt let any goal in against us.

You might be right. Although I still feel like it's a bit like putting all your eggs in one basket.

 

[jka*]

Maybe Berglund in 1st line. Sweden can take gold.