4 Nations Roster Remix: 1985 Sweden Team

The top NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States will go head-to-head at the 4 Nations Face-Off, a best-on-best tournament that will be held from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.

Though this is the first tournament of its kind to feature these four countries, NHL.com and NHL.com International have put together what the rosters and line combinations for each country would have looked like in the past, going backwards in five-year intervals. The rosters will follow the same format as the current 4 Nations teams: 13 forwards, seven defensemen and three goalies.

The stories will run each Friday and Sunday through Feb. 9.

Today, NHL.com/sv senior writer Janne Bengtsson, reveals what his Sweden roster would've looked like in 1985.

Forwards (13)

Mats Naslund -- Kent Nilsson -- Hakan Loob

Jorgen Pettersson -- Thomas Steen -- Patrik Sundstrom

Anders Kallur -- Bengt-Ake Gustafsson -- Willy Lindstrom

Tomas Sandstrom -- Thomas Gradin -- Anders Hedberg

Bob Nystrom

With players who had won or would win a total of 22 Stanley Cup titles, Sweden put a very competetive team on the ice. A team whose core a year earlier had seriously challenged Canada for the Canada Cup victory, Team Sweden fielded a first line that produced heavy in the 1984-85 season: Naslund of the Montreal Canadiens with Nilsson and Loob of the Calgary Flames combined for 250 points, including 116 goals. Steen (Winnipeg Jets) played center between Pettersson (St. Louis Blues) and Sundstrom (Vancouver Canucks) on the second line, also a highly productive line: 78 goals and 207 points. A third line with New York Islanders versatile forward Kallur, as useful as a Swiss Army knife, Washington Capitals clever center Gustafsson and two-time Stanley Cup champion Lindstrom (Edmonton Oilers) was rounded out with a fourth line that had 173 points in the 1984-85 season, including 71 goals: Sandstrom (New York Rangers), Gradin (Canucks) and Hedberg (Rangers), in his final year in the NHL. After 14 years in the NHL, Islanders Sweden-born, U.S.-raised veteran and four-time Stanley Cup winner Nystrom completed the team.

Defensemen (7)

Borje Salming -- Stefan Persson

Ulf Samuelsson -- Tomas Jonsson

Thomas Eriksson -- Peter Andersson

Mats Thelin

Salming (Toronto Maple Leafs) formed the first defense pair with Islanders four-time Stanley Cup winner Persson. Defensive defenseman Samuelsson (Hartford Whalers) and the more offensive Jonsson (Islanders) felt like a natural second pair, while powerful Eriksson (Philadelphia Flyers) with his rock-hard style of playing and shot played with young talent, 22-year-old Andersson of the Washington Capitals. Thelin (Boston Bruins) would be the seventh defenseman.

Goalies (3)

Pelle Lindbergh

Hardy Astrom

Gote Walitalo

Lindbergh (Flyers) was the only Swedish goaltender in the NHL in the 1984-85 season. He played 65 games and won 40 of them. The Stockholm-born goalie finished the 1984-85 season with the best saves percentage (.899) in the League and won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's best goalie that season. He was also a finalist for the Hart Trophy as the League's most valuable player. The 1984-85 season would be Lindbergh's last: after playing just eight games in the 1985-86 season, Lindbergh died in an automobile accident on Nov. 11, 1985. Team Sweden filled up in goal with newly crowned Swedish champion Astrom from Sodertalje; he played 79 games for the Colorado Rockies from 1979-81. Lindbergh and Astrom were backed up by Walitalo, who never played in the NHL but represented the national team, winning bronze in the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics.