Sweden projected roster for 2025 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 with tickets going on sale Oct. 29 for the games in Montreal, and on Oct. 30 for the games in Boston on Ticketmaster.com. With the NHL season off and running, NHL.com wanted to take an updated look at 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 an updated one in July.

With the official rosters being announced in about a month, Kimelman, Gulitti and Ekholm take another shot at it now with some changes. Also, six players (marked by an asterisk) were named to the roster in June by their hockey federations.

Here is the Sweden projected roster (in alphabetical order):

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*
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
Kevin Stenlund, Utah Hockey Club
Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers*

There's one change in our forward group since we put our roster together in July. With William Karlsson of the Vegas Golden Knights just making his season debut Saturday because of injury, we felt the need to add a replacement player. Stenlund, who helped the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup last season and has played a significant role in Utah's success this season, seems like a fine addition. Karlsson scored 30 goals last season, but there's already a ton of offense in the forward group. Stenlund's contribution would come more as a checker and penalty killer, with his size (6-foot-5, 213 pounds) and strength helping against some of the high-end offensive players Sweden will have to deal with during the tournament. When the Panthers tied for sixth in the NHL on the penalty kill (82.5 percent) last season, he led Florida forwards with an average short-handed ice time of 2:42 per game. He's a top penalty-killer for Utah this season, and also has won 63.3 percent of his face-offs. -- 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

We made one tweak to our defense corps from when we last did this exercise in July, adding Andersson in place of Adam Larsson of the Seattle Kraken. Andersson is a two-way defenseman who brings more of an offensive element than Larsson. Andersson is off to a strong start this season with 10 points (four goals, six assists) in eight games after he had 39 points (nine goals, 30 assists) in 78 games last season. More of a stay-at-home defenseman, Larsson had 18 points (four goals, 14 assists) in 81 games last season. Andersson and Larsson both shoot right-handed, so there remains an imbalance of five left-handed shots (Dahlin, Ekholm, Forsling, Hedman, Lindholm) and two righties (Karlsson, Andersson). One of the left-shot defensemen 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

The main discussion has been who will be the third goalie on the roster after Ullmark and Markstrom. Our initial roster in February included Gustavsson, but after a strong finish to last season, Samuel Ersson of the Philadelphia Flyers had that spot when we revised our list in July. However, after a sparkling start that includes a 2.17 goals-against average, a .922 save percentage and a goal against the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 15, Gustavsson has moved back into a spot for the tournament. Ullmark and Markstrom remain the favorites to be the No. 1 and No. 2 goalies, and it's probably a pretty even race for who will start in the opening game against Canada on Feb. 12. -- Ekholm