Calgary Flames All-Time International Roster: Team Sweden

Welcome to Part 3 of this series looking at the top Flames players from each of the major hockey nations. Today we head to Scandinavia with Team Sweden which has had a number of great nationals wear the Flaming C, along with a few new names. For the sake of putting together a full team, I cut the GP restriction so a few new faces are on this team.

For Team Canada, click here.

For Team USA, click here.

Forwards

Line 1: Kristian Huselius – Kent Nilsson – Hakan Loob

Couple of legendary franchise names grace the Swedish Flames top line. Nilsson’s 131 points from the 1980-81 season is a mark still unrivaled to this day. Loob also had a stellar 429 points in 450 games with the Flames before going back to Sweden after winning the Stanley Cup. I’m also still pissed the Flames couldn’t keep Huselius around after three really good years in the mid 2000’s.

Line 2: Marcus Nilsson – Mikael Backlund – Elias Lindholm

Still a pretty good second line but you can see the drop off coming on the left side. Brace yourself because it’s going to come pretty quick.

Line 3: Dan Laabraten – Michael Nylander – Jonas Hoglund

Welp, it’s up to Nylander to carry the bottom six.

Line 4: Joakim Nordstrom – Mathias Johansson – Frederik Sjostrom

Yeahhh, I don’t think Sweden has the depth. Maybe Nordstrom can do some good PK work though.

Scratch: Lucas Feuk (I guess?)

Defense

1st Pairing: Tommy Albelin – Rasmus Andersson

Not a ton of help coming on the blue line although Rasmus’ development is something exciting to watch for the real-life Flames.

2nd Pairing: Roger Johansson – Oliver Kylington

I’ll be honest and say I’ve never heard of Roger Johansson. But hey, at least Kylington finally gets a top four role!

3rd Pairing: Erik Gustafsson – Johannes Kinnvall

I really wish the Flames had found a way to keep Gustafsson, but alas. Kinnvall gets the mention in the roster because he is an exciting prospect to watch in Sweden. As of November 25 he has 13 points in 10 SHL games and could be a solid PP contributor in the future.

Scratch: Oscar Fantenberg (I guess?)

Goaltenders

Starter: Jacob Markstrom

Yeah I guess it’s kind of cheating because he hasn’t played a game with the team yet but come on. He’s a Flame and he’s going to very (hopefully) good. Super excited about this.

Backup: Henrik Karlsson

Remember the Calgary Tower in net? The 6’6 goalie played 26 games for the team with five wins between the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons behind Miikka Kiprusoff playing 70+ games. He’s the franchise leader in wins by a Swedish goalie, let’s hope Markstrom can catch that within the first month or less.

by Michael MacGillivray