Olympic Roster Speculation - Sweden

Sweden is one of the favorites in this years Olympics. They won Gold in 2006 but was unable to grab a medal in 2010. Sweden always has a large selection of talented players to pick from and they will build a solid team around arguably the best goalie in the World, Henrik Lundqvist. With the invitations for the camp roster already out, the most surprising player missing is Daniel Alfredsson. The major competition within the roster will be on defense. All of Sweden’s defensemen invited to Sweden’s ’14 Olympic camp roster are considered “top 4” on their respective NHL teams. That being said, here is what I think the Swedish Olympic roster will look come February.

Forwards

Line 1: Loui Eriksson, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin
Line 2: Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Backstrom, Johan Franzen
Line 3: Patric Hornqvist, Patrik Berglund, Gabriel Landeskog
Line 4: Carl Hagelin, Alexander Steen, Oscar Lindberg
Extra Forwards: Marcus Johansson, Joel Lundqvist

Defensemen

Pair 1: Erik Karlsson, Niklas Kronwall
Pair 2: Alexander Edler, Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Pair 3: Victor Hedman, Niklas Hjalmarsson
Extra Defensemen: Johnny Oduya, Jonas Brodin

Goaltenders

Starter: Henrik Lundqvist
Backup: Viktor Fasth
Extra Goalie: Robin Lehner

Same Faces, New Name

One of Europe's oldest hockey leagues is getting a rebrand - complete with a new name. Last month, officials of Sweden's top league, Elitserien, decided to change the name of their league to SHL; the Swedish Hockey League. Citing the need to make the brand more recognizable, the acronym SHL is about as straightforward as it gets; it's Swedish, it's hockey, and it's a league. The name and brand change will take effect this coming season, which begins on September 14th.

Two new teams will be joining the SHL this season. Leksands IF and Örebro HK were both promoted to the SHL through a tournament called Kvalserien, which serves to promote and relegate teams to either SHL or HockeyAllsvenskan, which is Sweden's second-tier league. Each season, the bottom two teams from the SHL compete in a double round-robin against the top three teams from HockeyAllsvenskan, plus the winner of a double round-robin between teams placed 4th-7th in HockeyAllsvenskan. The top two teams in Kvalserien are promoted to the SHL, while the rest play in HockeyAllsvenskan the following season.