Worst time for Swedes in the NHL?

[DrewGl]

Backstrom has never been flashy and is always overshadowed by OV. I would say he is still considered top level talent that most teams would want.

 

[hoglund]

Is this the worst Swedes have performed in the NHL for at least 2 decades?

At this point, no Swedes are among the top players, everyone is either under-performing, is overrated, over the hill or too young to make an impact.

Hedman, Karlsson, Backstrom, Lundqvist were once the elite of the elite, they have now vacated those spots - either temporarily or permanently.

How many Swedes are top-5 in their position right now? Hedman is the only one, and he has not developed to take that last step into superstardom.

There are no Lidstroms, Forsbergs, Sundins, Alfies or Zetterbergs.

Am I pessimistic or realistic?

be careful what you say. William Nylander has 15 points in 19 games, that's not great, but certainly isn't terrible.

 

[MrThomas]

Yet its Canada that produces guys like Sid and McDavid and "never" Sweden or even Russia (prime Sid/McDavid >> prime AO/Geno).

My point is that the quality of schooling plays a role.

That is just pure luck that McDavid and Crosby are Canadians. If they would have born in USA or Sweden they would still be as good.

 

[Mitch nylander]

Didn't Sweden just have a 1st overal draft pick last year? Didnt they have the best player in the draft the year before that?

Not only that they have two players considered to go top 5 in raymond #3/#2 or Holtz #5. To add, they have Gunler, Nybeck, Andrae, Grans to likely go first round..

 

[Love]

 

[Love]

There’s a decent chance Sweden has a couple players picked in the top 5 of the draft next year

 

[Paul4587]

Hedman is a top 2-3 Dman in the game. The Swedes very much still have elite players in the NHL.

 

[Jaska]

Sweden will be just fine.

 

[vippe]

Hedman is one season away from being the best defenseman in the league and was top 4 last year. Let's not be silly. He's still among the top of the cream, and any team would take him every day of the week. Clearly, Karlsson has taken a pretty big step back for whatever reason but he's too talented to not come back to form. Backstrom is one of the best two way forwards in the league and if Pettersson continue the path he's currently on he's gonna be a superstar in the league as well.

Coreplayers for a Swedish team going forward would look something like this;

Lehner
Hedman, OEL, Karlsson, Lindholm
Forsberg, Pettersson, Lindholm, Zibanejad, Nylander, Backstrom, Arvidsson, Karlsson, Landeskog

As for the future there's a lot of players showing promise notably Dahlin ofc but Olofsson, Brännström, Sandin, Boqvist, Broberg, Söderström and so on.. if only we could produce a forward with similar talents.

If Lehner or anyone else takes the reign from Lundqvist and Sweden develop another star forward or two I'm not really worried. Sweden would still be capable of icing a very good time, but without the mega star on forward currently.

So basically - In terms of super stars.. probably the lowest in quite some time, but as for depth I think it's a good group of players.

 

[Dread Clawz]

Sweden is fine. If E Karlsson didn't decide to be a lazy bonehead this year they'd still have 2 of the top 5-7 defensemen in the nhl.

 

[Artemis Clyde Frog]

Feels like Sweden is more quantity over quality atm. There are no Lidströms, Foppas, Sundins, Näslunds etc atm. But at the same time we have the most NHL players/registered players by country.

Comparing to Finland since they only have slightly more registered players than Sweden (64k vs 55k) I feel they are more stacked on the attacking side atm, which is the side that tends to get more noticed talking superstars. Would rather have Laine, Barkov, Rantanen on my first line than Bäckström, Pettersson and...... Nylander? Not sure I'd trade Aho either for any of the 3 Swedes I mentioned.

So I agree Sweden lacks absolute superstars compared to a few years ago, but at the same time the quantity is quite amazing.

 

[IWantSakicAsMyGM]

Didn't Sweden just have a 1st overal draft pick last year? Didnt they have the best player in the draft the year before that?

Makar isn't Swedish.

 

[SlapshotTheMovie]

Makar isn't Swedish.

Makar might eventually take that title. Kid is good.... but right now its not his haha.

 

[Kahvi]

Makar might eventually take that title. Kid is good.... but right now its not his haha.

Why would Makar eventually become Swedish?

 

[Stelmacki]

Only two of those are serious hockey countries.

Which is something I’ve always found interesting. Why is Norway not a bigger hockey country?

 

[Snauen]

Which is something I’ve always found interesting. Why is Norway not a bigger hockey country?

They are a "mountain people", they are not good at team-sport generally, more indivdual minded, compared to Swedes who is known to be good at team sports in general, if generalizing..

 

[Snauen]

More difficult to play pond hockey or build a rink on a mountain than on the plain too

 

[Slap]

Still with melted ice they have more NHL players than Finland, Czech, Denmark, Norway, Austria and Germany combined though

That's an odd group considering Czech has been declining for years and Denmark, Norway, Austria and Germany have never had many players in the NHL. Might aswell add Zimbabwe and Ecuador.

 

[Slap]

I think we can all say with a high degree of certainty that the great Swedish hockey schools will raise another generation of NHL calibre talent. Its only a matter of time really.

The Russian hockey school also doesnt deliver AO's or Geno's on a 5 yearly basis. Only the Canadian school does but then again, the love for hockey in Canada is simply higher.

We have never seen the Swedish hockey school develop a comparable talent to AO or Malkin. Defense is another story.

 

[tony d]

Sweden's players are fine. Karlsson and Hedman are at worst among the top 3 defensemen in the league. That Dahlin kid is going to be good as well.

 

[Chimpradamus]

Okey what about this:

Now (2019-20) 93 nhl players from Sweden

10 years ago (2009-10) 55 nhl players from Sweden

20 years ago (1999-00) 46 nhl players from Sweden

Source: eliteprospect

Yup. It says pretty much it. Maybe not the extreme top world talent is there in every generation, but it's still really good at producing high quality, responsible players that the coach can trust in their roles. And it's not like the top end talent is completely gone either, Sweden has some really interesting players growing up right now.

We have never seen the Swedish hockey school develop a comparable talent to AO or Malkin. Defense is another story.

Hockey culture. No Swedish player will be all out offense like a Russian player. They will be a two-way player as a standard. They are taught preventing a goal is just as important as scoring one if you want to win. Russian forwards? Not as much, they believe in scoring more than your opponent. Then when they enter the NHL, Russian players learn how to focus more on the team effort, while Swedes learn how to be more selfish.

 

[Bounces R Way]

I'm not going to bother finding stats to back this up but it's always seemed to me that Swedes that come over at a young age take a little longer to break out in the NHL compared at least to their NA counterparts.

They're missing some top end producing forwards, Pettersson might fill in that gap a little but as far as depth goes they still have some very strong all around players. Do they have any standout goalie prospects? Markstrom is pretty good, Lundqvist is over the hill, who'd be #3? Anders Nilsson? Oskar Dansk?

 

[Chimpradamus]

I'm not going to bother finding stats to back this up but it's always seemed to me that Swedes that come over at a young age take a little longer to break out in the NHL compared at least to their NA counterparts.

They're missing some top end producing forwards, Pettersson might fill in that gap a little but as far as depth goes they still have some very strong all around players. Do they have any standout goalie prospects? Markstrom is pretty good, Lundqvist is over the hill, who'd be #3? Anders Nilsson? Oskar Dansk?

Sweden has always had their biggest weakness in net, but there usually is a solid guy who can get the job done for the next generation. Then at defense it's just a ridiculous explosion of talent, while you at forwards have a plethora of solid, skilled two-way forwards, with some sprinkle of extra brilliance.

As for the goaltending for Sweden now? Markström and Lehner are top notch and I wouldn't be worried with either one of them in net. Markström is really good, but I might consider Lehner the even more powerful talent of the two. Both of them are very strong netminders. Then you still have old man Lundqvist who can still show what he can do on any given night.

So as for the answer to your question: Don't forget Lehner. He will show you why. He's brilliant.

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

View attachment 276297

isn't he more Canadian ?

 

[Bounces R Way]

Sweden has always had their biggest weakness in net, but there usually is a solid guy who can get the job done for the next generation. Then at defense it's just a ridiculous explosion of talent, while you at forwards have a plethora of solid, skilled two-way forwards, with some sprinkle of extra brilliance.

As for the goaltending for Sweden now? Markström and Lehner are top notch and I wouldn't be worried with either one of them in net. Markström is really good, but I might consider Lehner the even more powerful talent of the two. Both of them are very strong netminders. Then you still have old man Lundqvist who can still show what he can do on any given night.

Totally forgot about Lehner somehow.

Would be very interesting to see what their best National team would look like at the moment. Still not sure they could put a top 6 of forwards together that would measure up to Canada, Russia, and the US. Maybe that wouldn't matter quite as much because ice time is more evenly distributed in International Tournaments compared to the NHL. I'd agree their defense would still likely be the best in the world.