FORWARDS (14)<\/p>\n
Mikael Backlund<\/a>, Calgary Flames With Landeskog, Raymond, Kempe and Nylander, already selected, Team Sweden coach Sam Hallam has a solid foundation. Landeskog and Backlund are popular team captains for Colorado and Calgary, respectively, and will be the leaders who can get the players on board and inspire and motivate teammates. Backlund received the 2023 King Clancy Award for his leadership qualities on and off the ice. The fact that Landeskog was named in the initial six shows not only the respect he garners from the Swedish Federation, but the faith that he will be a part of the Olympic team after missing nearly three seasons with a serious knee injury. Sweden also counts on scorers like Bratt, Kempe and Nylander. Face-off specialists like Lindholm and Eriksson Ek and stable role players like Rakell, Karlsson, Forsberg and Zibanejad will provide valued depth, though Rakell is out a projected 6-8 weeks after having surgery on his left hand Oct. 26. Raymond, Carlsson and, to some extent, Pettersson are the new blood. Raymond is an integral part of the Red Wings and Carlsson has made a steady impression in Anaheim. Hallam has a skilled and goal-scoring team at his disposal with six right-shot forwards. Outside but still close to the team is William Eklund<\/a>, a 23-year-old forward with the San Jose Sharks. — Bengtsson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORWARDS (14) Mikael Backlund, Calgary FlamesJesper Bratt, New Jersey DevilsLeo Carlsson, Anaheim DucksJoel Eriksson Ek, Minnesota WildFilip Forsberg,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-259230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Jesper Bratt<\/a>, New Jersey Devils
Leo Carlsson<\/a>, Anaheim Ducks
Joel Eriksson Ek<\/a>, Minnesota Wild
Filip Forsberg<\/a>, Nashville Predators
William Karlsson<\/a>, Vegas Golden Knights
Adrian Kempe<\/a>, Los Angeles Kings*
Gabriel Landeskog<\/a>, Colorado Avalanche*
Elias Lindholm<\/a>, Boston Bruins
William Nylander<\/a>, Toronto Maple Leafs*
Elias Pettersson<\/a>, Vancouver Canucks
Rickard Rakell<\/a>, Pittsburgh Penguins
Lucas Raymond<\/a>, Detroit Red Wings*
Mika Zibanejad<\/a>, New York Rangers<\/p>\n