Likely contributing to the selection process was Hornqvist, a scouting and development consultant with the Florida Panthers and assistant general manager for Sweden at the 4 Nations Face-Off and 2025 IIHF World Championship in May. He played 901 NHL games over 15 seasons with the Nashville Predators, Pittsburgh Penguins and Panthers, and won the Stanley Cup twice with the Penguins, in 2016 and 2017.
Alfredsson likely was, too; in addition to being a member of the Ottawa Senators coaching staff and a senior adviser at the World Championship and assistant coach at the 4 Nations, he had a Hockey Hall of Fame career with 1,246 games played in 18 seasons with the Senators and Red Wings.
“I spend most of my time in North America so I keep a finger on the pulse over there,” Boumedienne said, “and Patric Hornqvist, he didn’t retire too long ago and he played with a lot of the players so he has that relationship, and he is part of one of the best teams in hockey helping out there and has the knowledge of what it takes to win, for sure. And ‘Alfie,’ he doesn’t need much more introduction.
“We try to use everybody’s strengths. It’s just a fun group to be a part of. That’s typically how we do it in Sweden over the history, not just in hockey. We’ve been a really successful country in team sports, and it’s always by committee. It’s never hierarchical in Sweden, in general. We always do it by committee.”
Boumedienne spoke with NHL.com about lessons learned at the 4 Nations Face-off and what to expect at Milano Cortina.
What did you learn from the 4 Nations experience?
“First of all, it was an exciting tournament, you know? It was good. It was the first best-on-best since 2016, so that was awesome to begin with. We learned about our team and we learned about our players. We hadn’t had the chance to spend a whole lot of time with our NHL players, so we learned bits and pieces about the guys the more we spent time with them. We were fortunate to have a few of them at the Worlds last year and then the 4 Nations, and a lot of them at Worlds this year. We learned a lot along the way about our players.”
Does what you observed at the 4 Nations change your philosophy at all in terms of how you want to build your roster for the Olympics?
“I think as a whole we were happy with how we played. We weren’t happy with the result. For us, it’s a little different compared to Canada and the U.S. Our pool of players is a little smaller. There’s not that many decision for us to make, roster decisions. We don’t have hundreds of players in the NHL vs. U.S. and Canada, so our process is a little different.”
Where do you feel your team needs to be better?
“I’d like to see a little more grit. I’d like to see a heavier game. A healthy Gabe Landeskog would have made a difference, I think. He finished the year in Colorado and hopefully he has a good summer and is able to start off on the right foot in the fall. A healthy Gabe Landeskog would really help with the grit in the way he plays.”