Sweden projected roster for 2025 4 Nations Face-Off
Markstrom could potentially start in goal as Nyquist and Eklund are welcomed as new additions.
© Derek Cain/Getty Images, Kavin Mistry/NHLI via Getty Images
The 2025 4 Nations Face-Off will be held from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston, with teams of NHL players from Finland, Sweden, Canada and the United States competing in a round-robin tournament. This will be the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016 in Toronto.
Though the international tournament is more than seven months away, NHL.com wanted to take an updated look on what the rosters for each country could look like, using a panel of three staff writers and editors to compile a list of 23 players (20 skaters, three goalies) for each team.
NHL.com deputy managing editor Adam Kimelman, staff writer Tom Gulitti and NHL.com/sv independent correspondent Peter Ekholm unveiled their original Sweden roster in February and take another shot at it now with the season over, with some changes. Also, six players (marked by an asterisk) were named to the rosters last month.
The projected roster for Sweden is presented below, organized alphabetically by position:
Forwards (13)
Jesper Bratt, New Jersey Devils
Leo Carlsson, Anaheim Ducks
William Eklund, San Jose Sharks
Joel Eriksson Ek, Minnesota Wild
Filip Forsberg, Nashville Predators*
William Karlsson, Vegas Golden Knights
Adrian Kempe, Los Angeles Kings
Elias Lindholm, Boston Bruins
William Nylander, Toronto Maple Leafs*
Gustav Nyquist, Nashville Predators
Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks
Lucas Raymond, Detroit Red Wings
Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers*
Not much has changed for our forward group since we did this exercise in February, with Forsberg, Nylander and Zibanejad considered locks for top-six forward spots before they were included among Sweden’s first six players named to the roster. There are two changes from that initial projection, with Nyquist and Eklund coming in, replacing Gabriel Landeskog of the Colorado Avalanche and Mikael Backlund of the Calgary Flames. Nyquist found a fit on the Predators’ top line with Forsberg and Ryan O'Reilly last season and set NHL bests in goals (23) and points (75). Eklund was a standout on a last-place Sharks team and should be even better this season with more experience and a better group around him. A potential line of Eklund, Carlsson and Raymond could get high-level tournament experience at the 4 Nations Face-Off in preparation for larger roles at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. Landeskog was tough to remove from the roster, but there’s no word if he’ll be able to continue playing after missing the past two seasons because of a knee injury. — Kimelman
In the MTL@DET game, Raymond scores the decisive goal in overtime for a victorious finish.
Defensemen (7)
Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo Sabres
Mattias Ekholm, Edmonton Oilers
Gustav Forsling, Florida Panthers*
Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning*
Erik Karlsson, Pittsburgh Penguins*
Adam Larsson, Seattle Kraken
Hampus Lindholm, Boston Bruins
Our bad for not having Forsling among our initial picks back in February, but he clearly has established himself as one of the top shutdown defensemen in the NHL and rightfully was among the first six players named to Sweden’s roster. With Forsling added, we had to drop one defenseman from the seven we selected originally. It came down to a choice between Lindholm, a left-handed shot, and Rasmus Andersson of the Calgary Flames, a right-handed shot. We ultimately decided to go with Lindholm, though that created an imbalance with five left-shot defensemen in Lindholm, Forsling, Hedman, Dahlin and Ekholm, and only two right-handed shots, Karlsson and Larsson. That shouldn’t be an issue with the flexibility among this elite group playing on the international stage. — Gulitti
Goalies (3)
Samuel Ersson, Philadelphia Flyers
Jacob Markstrom, New Jersey Devils
Linus Ullmark, Ottawa Senators
Markstrom raised his game last season, and playing for the Devils, who should contend for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that should provide a boost; the more that is on the line, the better Markstrom tends to play. If Markstrom isn’t the tournament starter, it will be Ullmark, who should see a jump in ice time after his trade to the Senators. The only new member of our roster here is Ersson, who replaces Filip Gustavsson of the Minnesota Wild. Ersson led rookie NHL goalies last season with 51 games and had an .890 save percentage and four shutouts. That strong play carried into his time with Sweden at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, where he went 3-0-0 with an .891 save percentage in four games and helped Sweden win the bronze medal. He should be a perfect complement to the two veteran goalies. — Ekholm
