{"id":66066,"date":"2025-08-07T21:34:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/66066\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T21:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:34:06","slug":"nicklas-backstrom-back-on-team-swedens-radar-for-2026-winter-olympics-after-return-to-shl-of-course-we-will-watch-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/66066\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicklas Backstrom back on Team Sweden\u2019s radar for 2026 Winter Olympics after return to SHL: \u2018Of course we will watch him\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nicklas Backstrom\u00a0is set for a return to on-ice action for the first time since the beginning of the 2023-24 NHL season. Backstrom signed a one-year contract with Bryn\u00e4s IF of the SHL late last month<\/a>, returning to the club where he started his professional career.<\/p>\n

The return from injury that prematurely ended his NHL career with the Washington Capitals will be a potential boon for Bryn\u00e4s and, apparently, also the Swedish national team. Sweden\u2019s coach, Sam Hallam, recently spoke with NHL.com\u2019s Janne Bengtsson<\/a> about the nation\u2019s roster decisions for the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics and mentioned that Backstrom remains a candidate for selection.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course we will watch him,\u201d Hallam told Bengtsson<\/a>. \u201cFirst of all, it is very nice that \u2018Backy\u2019 is healthy enough to play. I don\u2019t think he would have jumped on that task if he didn\u2019t feel he could contribute. So for hockey at home in Sweden and the SHL, it is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Backstrom has represented his country at the senior level throughout his career, including at both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics. In nine career Olympic games, he has recorded 10 points (1g, 9a). He led Sweden in the 2010 tournament with six points (1g, 5a) in four games before Slovakia eliminated them in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Sweden made it to the gold medal game. However, Backstrom was barred from playing in the final after a drug test indicated doping due to an allergy medication containing pseudoephedrine. Sweden would go on to lose 3-0 to Canada and take home a silver medal.<\/p>\n

Backstrom\u2019s medal was withheld until a 2015 appeal when he, the IOC, WADA, and the IIHF agreed to a settlement in which he accepted a reprimand but was cleared of attempting to enhance his performance. He later returned to national team play for the 2016-17 season, playing for Sweden at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the 2017 World Championship.<\/p>\n

Bryn\u00e4s was the SHL\u2019s best regular season team this past year and is expected to compete for that spot again during the 2015-26 season. The team\u2019s management plans to delay Backstrom\u2019s re-debut in the SHL, but the team\u2019s sports director, Johan Alcen, hinted that it could come as soon as early October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Backstrom may be back on Hallam\u2019s radar, he\u2019ll have to beat out heavy NHL competition at center to earn a spot on the Olympic roster. Elias Pettersson, Mika Zibanejad, Joel Eriksson Ek, Leo Carlsson, and William Karlsson are just some of the names vying to get on Sweden\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicklas Backstrom\u00a0is set for a return to on-ice action for the first time since the beginning of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-66066","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\/66066","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=66066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}