Death, taxes, and Sweden winning a whole lot of games at the World Juniors. It has become second nature for Tre Kroner to come into the winter junior tournament every single year and end up near perfect in the group stage, and then let it all play out in the knockout and medal round. But as the third fiddle in this triumvirate at the top of junior hockey, the end results aren't always all that glamorous.
Since 2018, this has been Sweden's end result: Silver, fifth place, bronze, fifth place, bronze, fourth place, and silver last year. The last time Sweden won gold was all the way back in 2012. Prior to that, it was 1981.
Sweden always ices an exciting team with good NHL prospects and is certainly a joy to watch, but they don't have the absolute killers throughout the lineup like a United States or Canada does, and it's the same story this year. A lot of exciting talent, but compared to the top of the crop and Sweden falls short.
D Axel Sandin-Pellikka
Sandin-Pellikka could certainly be the best defenseman of the tournament. Right now, before any game takes place, it appears to be between him and Zeev Buium for that projectable spot. But the Detroit Red Wings prospect will have to certainly take more responsibility all over the ice than Buium, as the American gets to pass the puck to Ryan Leonard.
Right now, Sandin-Pellikka is destroying defenses in the SHL. As a defenseman, the 19-year-old has eight goals and 22 points in 25 games. There has never, ever been a defenseman under the age of 20 in that top-tier European league to have that rate of production. The closest there has been is when Nils Lundkvist managed to score 31 points in 45 games, and more recently, future teammate of Sandin-Pellikka, Moritz Seider scored 28 points in 41. Even going back further, statistically, Sandin-Pellikka's 18-year-old season was comparable to that of Victor Hedman and Rasmus Dahlin. Insane.
Now, he gets to beat up on some poor juniors as he's used to beating up on grown men.
LW Victor Eklund
Victor Eklund should be selected with one of the first 10 draft picks at the 2025 NHL Draft. The left winger who is dangerous on a whole lot of his shifts should have an opportunity to really break out as one of the key names for casual prospect watchers to pay attention to.
Yeah, we have James Hagens, Porter Martone, and Matthew Schaefer on some good teams, but Eklund could certainly be handed the reins as the second-line scorer on this Sweden team. And who will be at the top? Well...
C David Edstrom
The first line of center David Edstrom, Otto Stenberg on his left, and Felix Unger Sorem on his right has been cemented as one of the most stable lines in international junior hockey. Every single game that Sweden's youth team gets to lace up, it's those three together and it's those three that get to control the pace of the game. Familiarity might be a key to Sweden finishing with a medal in back-to-back tournaments for the first time since 2014, and this line holds the key to that happening.
Edstrom individually though, is great. The Nashville Predators prospect that was the key return for Yaroslav Askarov in the trade with the San Jose Sharks, has been great this year. He's big at 6-foot-3, and has been scoring at a very good clip in the SHL for Frolunda, with 13 points in 22 games. He will be that all-situations center that is so heavily depended on if this team wants to keep on winning games. It might just all fall on him and his linemates, to be honest.
Maddie: I feel like Sweden is always an interesting watch. They're a very good team and while they don't have those "absolute killers" that the US or Canada might, there's still a little part of me that always hopes that they can pull off some sort of more than the sum of their parts upset and win it all. Do I think that's super likely to happen? Not really. But there does always feel like there's that potential. Either way, this is going to be a fun team that's going to, at the very least, give the other big teams some trouble. Which, truly, is all we can ask for.
Thomas: Sweden should obviously be one of the best teams in the tournament and if you wanted to choose them as a team that would beat one of Canada or the United States on their way to the gold medal game, that wouldn't be crazy. But as we mentioned, they just lack the Dog of a player that could just go and win tournament MVP out of nowhere. Sandin-Pellikka is an extremely nice player, but he doesn't scream to me as a guy that can take over a game like some other, more North American, players can in this short tournament. Still, should be fun and would love to be proved wrong.