When Hedman was 12 or 13 years old, like those kids outside the Lightning's hotel, it wasn't quite like it is today.
Fifty-eight Sweden-born players appeared in an NHL game in 2002-03. Fifty-two did in 2003-04.
The NHL had not yet played a regular-season game in Sweden.
Hedman said he wouldn't stay up to watch NHL games, which generally start from 1-4:30 a.m. here. His dream was to play for Modo, the pro team in his hometown of Örnsköldsvik, or for the Sweden national team.
Many Sweden-born players in the NHL today say something similar.
Now, though, kids can see highlights on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and NHL.com. They can read stories in Swedish on NHL.com/sv. They know the players and teams in depth from NHL 19.
"They know the names," Lehmann said. "They know the way the teams play, the tactics and everything."
The NHL played regular-season games in Stockholm in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2017.
Ninety-five Sweden-born players appeared in an NHL game last season, which started with a regular-season game in Gothenburg between the Edmonton Oilers and the New Jersey Devils.
Sweden-born Oilers defensemen Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson were having lunch in Gothenburg when they were approached by an 8-year-old boy wearing an Oilers shirt and holding an Oilers hat.
He asked them where Canada-born superstar Connor McDavid was.
Eighty-two Sweden born players have appeared in an NHL game already this season, just a few weeks in.
It would be a stretch to say Stockholm is like, say, Buffalo or Tampa or, say, Toronto. Most of the time, most of the players are anonymous in street clothes in town, and when they are recognized, it's because they're traveling in packs at a time when people know the NHL is here.
"I'm sure when people see a bunch of guys that are stumbling around that can't speak Swedish, and they know that the games are going on, they probably put two and two together," Skinner said. "Yeah, I don't know, my Swedish isn't that great. It's kind of a giveaway."