Sweden projected roster for 4 Nations Face-Off

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.

The international tournament is about three months away, but the full rosters for each nation will be announced Dec. 4. The rosters for Finland and Sweden will be announced during a live show produced by NHL Network and made available globally. ESPN will also announce the remaining players representing Finland and Sweden during the 2 p.m. ET edition of SportsCenter. At 6:30 p.m. ET, the balance of rosters for Canada and the United States will be announced during live pre-game shows on Sportsnet and TNT leading into doubleheaders on each network.

Before that happens, NHL.com wanted to take an updated look at what each roster 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, an updated one in July, and one last month. Kimelman, Gulitti and Ekholm take a final shot at predicting the roster with some minor changes.

Six players (marked by an asterisk) were named to the roster in June by their hockey federations.

Here is the Sweden projected roster (listed alphabetically by position):

Forwards (13)

Jesper Bratt, New Jersey Devils
Leo Carlsson, Anaheim Ducks
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*
Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks
Rickard Rakell, Pittsburgh Penguins
Lucas Raymond, Detroit Red Wings
Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers*
Fabian Zetterlund, San Jose Sharks

The first two months of the season saw a few forwards play their way into consideration for the tournament after being overlooked earlier. One easy addition from our last roster prediction was Karlsson, who has been healthy and productive after missing Vegas' first eight games because of an undisclosed injury. Rakell, who struggled as a bottom-six forward with the Penguins last season, has played well enough this season to have a consistent spot next to Sidney Crosby on Pittsburgh's top line. And Zetterlund has been a bright spot on a Sharks team going through growing pains while rebuilding around a young core. With Karlsson, Rakell and Zetterlund coming in, some deserving players were left off. Gustav Nyquist of the Predators and William Eklund of the Sharks were on earlier iterations of our roster, but Nyquist hasn't found the same level of production he had last season. And though Eklund has played well in San Jose, Zetterlund has been consistently more productive. Kevin Stenlund of the Utah Hockey Club was a defensive-minded addition when we put our team together last month, but Karlsson's two-way skill pushes him off the roster. -- Kimelman

Defensemen (7)

Rasmus Andersson, Calgary Flames
Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo Sabres
Mattias Ekholm, Edmonton Oilers
Gustav Forsling, Florida Panthers*
Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay Lightning*
Erik Karlsson, Pittsburgh Penguins*
Hampus Lindholm, Boston Bruins

Defenseman could be Sweden's deepest position, so there were some difficult decisions throughout this process. But for now, we did not make any changes to our seven selections from the most recent roster projection. The "for now" qualifier is necessary because Lindholm sustained a lower-body injury blocking a shot against the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 12 and at the time, former Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said, "It's going to be weeks," before he returned. The tournament is more than two months away, so Lindholm has time to heal, but if it becomes clear he won't be back in time, teams are permitted to replace injured players and because of Sweden's depth there will be plenty of options. Those include Adam Larsson of the Seattle Kraken, who was among our original picks in July before being replaced by Andersson last month, Jonas Brodin of the Minnesota Wild and Rasmus Sandin of the Washington Capitals. Regardless, this position should be a strength. There is an imbalance of five left-handed shots (Dahlin, Ekholm, Forsling, Hedman, Lindholm) and two righties (Karlsson, Andersson). One of them will have to play on the right side, but that shouldn't be a problem with the versatility in this group. -- Gulitti

Goalies (3)

Filip Gustavsson, Minnesota Wild
Jacob Markstrom, New Jersey Devils
Linus Ullmark, Ottawa Senators

Sweden will have three capable goalies in the tournament. During this process the debate has been about the third goalie. Samuel Ersson of the Philadelphia Flyers was in the mix and so was Anton Forsberg of the Senators. Ultimately Gustavsson gets the spot. He's had a successful start to the season while leading the Wild toward the top in the Central Division. It's unclear how much ice time he'll get with Ullmark and Markstrom expected to join the roster. Ullmark won the 2023 Vezina Trophy voted as the best goalie in the NHL and Markstrom finished second after playing for the Calgary Flames in 2022, so putting either or as the No. 3 would be tough for coach Sam Hallam. The debate on No. 1 vs. No. 2 will be the most interesting part leading up to the opening game against Canada at Bell Centre in Montreal on Feb. 12. -- Ekholm