Gustavsson, Markstrom, Ullmark give Sweden 'tough' choice at 4 Nations Face-Off

Sweden’s goalie depth was already evident in the difficult decisions it had to make to select Filip Gustavsson of the Minnesota Wild, Jacob Markstrom of the New Jersey Devils and Linus Ullmark of the Ottawa Senators as the three on its roster for the 4 Nations Face-Off, which was announced Wednesday.

There will be more hard choices to come in figuring out how to split up the playing time among the three Swedish goalies in the tournament, which also will include teams of NHL players from Finland, Canada and the United States and be held Feb. 12-20 at Bell Centre in Montreal and at TD Garden in Boston.

They begin with who will start Sweden’s opening game against Canada on Feb. 12 at Bell Centre.

“It’s going to be tough because we’re going to push each other and everyone wants to play,” Gustavsson said Wednesday.

Much has been made of the United States’ depth in net headed by Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets, who is the reigning winner of the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie last season. But Sweden general manager Josef Boumedienne and coach Sam Hallam feel good about how their goaltending stacks up against the other three countries in the 4-Nations Face-Off, which will be the first best-on-best tournament in men’s ice hockey since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

“We like our depth, of course, and not just that,” Hallam said. “We really like the top end of it and we’re fortunate. We have three goalies coming in and we haven’t decided about one, two, three. It’s up for grabs for the boys just to play their game, compete and which will be the starter in the first game will be decided [by] how it looks through mid-January up to [when] the tournament starts.”

Ullmark won the Vezina in 2022-23 with the Boston Bruins and Markstrom finished second in the Vezina voting behind Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers in 2021-22 when he was with the Calgary Flames.

This season, Gustavsson has helped Minnesota (17-4-4) climb to the top of the NHL standings by leading the League (among goalies to play at least nine games) with a 2.04 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. With a 12-4-3 record in 19 games (all starts), the 26-year-old is tied with Markstrom third in the NHL in wins and he is one behind Hellebuyck for the NHL lead with two shutouts.

Markstrom is having a solid first season with New Jersey (17-9-2), which is tied with the Washington Capitals for first in the Eastern Conference, after being acquired in a trade with Calgary on June 19. The 34-year-old is 12-6-1 with a 2.54 GAA, .907 save percentage and one shutout in 19 games (all starts).

Ullmark has been adjusting since being traded to Ottawa (10-12-2) by Boston on June 24. The 31-year-old is 5-7-2 with a 3.07 GAA, .888 save percentage and one shutout in 15 games (14 starts) this season.

“Filip has been playing unbelievable in Minnesota and Ullmark is a world-class goalie and coming off one year ago winning the Vezina,” Markstrom said. “And myself, I feel like I’m really finding my game and keep playing good hockey. Like Josef said too, there’s a lot of goalies knocking on the door as well that could’ve made a spot.”

Those who missed the cut include Samuel Ersson of the Philadelphia Flyers and Ullmark’s Senators teammate, Anton Forsberg. Boumedienne said experience was a factor throughout the decision-making process.

“For us, it’s win now,” Boumedienne said. “It’s win this tournament. That’s what we focused on.”

Markstrom, Ullmark and Gustavsson each has represented Sweden previously. Markstrom is the only one of the three who played in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, making 27 saves in a 2-1 victory against Russia in his lone appearance in the tournament when Henrik Lundqvist was ill. Gustavsson helped Sweden finish third at the 2024 IIHF World Championship in Czechia by going 6-1-0 with a 2.13 GAA and .903 save percentage in seven games (all starts).

Getting a chance to play for Sweden again at the 4 Nations Face-off has been part of Gustavsson’s motivation this season.

“Sweden is always producing a lot of good goalies, and I knew I had to play my best to be on this roster,” he said. “And I’ve just been trying to play my game all year. We had some unfinished business last year at the world championships, so hopefully we can really, really play good there in February.”

In the meantime, each of the goalies will focus on helping his NHL team win with eye on potentially earning the No. 1 job with Sweden. Each country plays three games in the round-robin portion of the tournament to determine the two teams that will play in the championship game on Feb. 20. Whether more than one goalie gets a chance to start is to be determined.

“Our job is to push each other,” Markstrom said. “Obviously, Filip and Linus and myself, we want to be in the net and play, but only Sam is going to have tough decisions to make here come game time. But that’s part of it when you do these best-on-best tournaments. It’s not easy to be coach, but we’re here to push each other.”