INSIDER: Kempe, Armia talk Sweden/Finland & Olympic Selections

It's awfully fitting that Sweden and Finland announced their Olympic rosters on the same day.

For all that gets made of the Canada/United States games here in North America, in Europe it's the Sweden/Finland rivalry that's the biggest one out there. Just like the North American rivalry, Sweden and Finland share a border. Both of the two European nations produce high-caliber hockey players, certainly at a clip that exceeds the size of their respective countries. It's a heated rivalry, if you will, for those involved.

Next month, that rivalry will include Adrian Kempe for Team Sweden and Joel Armia with Finland, with both players set to represent their countries at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, as announced earlier today.

"Big rivalry always, doesn't matter what the teams look like, it doesn't matter if it's a World Championships game and we have 20 NHL players, they have zero, it doesn't matter, it's going to be tight games, physical, lot of heated moments out there, which is fun. Looking forward to another battle here," Kempe said.

"Yeah, those games have always been fun and no matter what what age you played on the national teams, always Finland Sweden games were great," Armia added. "Looking forward to that."

Kempe's selection was not new when Sweden's roster was announced today.

Over the summer, each qualifying nation for the tournament announced their top-six players who were guaranteed to make the roster and Kempe was among the players included for Team Sweden, as forward Kevin Fiala was for Team Switzerland. He was one who knew, which made it easier. With today's announcement, though, it brings it back to the top of his mind, with just over a month to go until the games begin.

"I am super excited, it's a dream come true to compete in the Olympics, for sure," Kempe said today. "4 Nations was kind of a tournament where you didn't really know, no one really knew what it was going to be like. Olympics, we have guys that have played before, they have experience. For me, I'm just very excited, proud and just looking forward to it."

Kempe's presence and role on the team is an easy one to define.

He'll be a top-six forward and one of the higher-scoring players on Team Sweden. He'll be expected to be one of the guys carrying the load for the team both offensively and in terms of bringing the two-way game that he's always had, to help play against high-end players on the opposition as well. He pointed to how for some players, there was the anxiety of not knowing in recent weeks. That wasn't the case for Kempe, who has known for some time now.

Different story for Armia.

Over the summer, after Armia signed with the Kings, I asked him about his experience at the 4 Nations Faceoff and what it would mean to him to go to the Winter Olympics in Milan.

“Last year’s 4 Nations was a special experience, to get to play against all the best players in the world," he said. "Now, it’s a goal of mine to be on the Olympic team too and that’s going to be a great tournament too. There haven’t been many tournaments where the best play against each other, so it would be a great thing to be on that team. Looking forward to that.”

As he navigated through his first season with the Kings, he didn't know whether or not he'd make the team, though he found out through a phone call shortly after Christmas. Held onto the secret for a bit now, until today's roster announcement.

"It's great, I'm honored to represent my country," Armia said. "It's going to be a great tournament and to be a part of that, I feel like it's a big accomplishment, for sure. I think we have a great team too, so it's not like we're just going to participate, we're going there to win games."

While this will be Armia’s second best-on-best tournament, he did win gold with Team Finland at the 2022 IIHF World Championships. In that event, Armia scored five goals in 10 games played, including the game-winning goal in the semifinals against the United States and a goal in the gold-medal win over Canada.

As Armia said, Finland is a proud country that is coming in as a team that is expected to compete for a medal. It's a group that has a more established style coming through the Finnish youth system than many countries do and as such, Finland teams tend to come together quickly in international competitions.

Though he didn't know for sure, Armia was always pretty close to a lock for Team Finland, especially after he was a depth player on the 4 Nations team. Considering the injury to forward Aleksander Barkov, which removed a key forward for the Finns, that was one more spot of breathing room. Perhaps no Finnish player has seen his stock rise more this season than Armia, who is off to a terrific start in Los Angeles, perhaps working his way into a larger role.

Among Finnish players this season, Armia ranks seventh in the NHL with nine goals. At this stage in the season, Armia leads all NHL players with four shorthanded goals, as he’s continued to be one of the league’s best players on the penalty kill. Among players with at least 50 minutes of shorthanded time on ice, Armia is the only player who is a net-even, as he’s been on the ice for five goals for and five goals against. Doesn’t take a massive stretch to understand that Armia is one of the best penalty-killing forwards in the NHL and he’s been a massive contributor for the Kings in that area.

You’d have to assume that’ll be a primary focus of his role at the Olympics as well. Armia played in two of three games at the 4 Nations event in February and played in a fourth-line role with PK duties included in that role. Finland has its share of elite players, but not quite at the level of some of the tournament’s other heavyweight teams. Therefore, there are more opportunities for a player like Armia to earn minutes and play a role for his team. Wouldn’t be shocked if were to find himself playing up a line, considering his reliability and trusted status with coaches and he’ll likely be a major factor while shorthanded as well.

"One of the things about Joel is he's really reliable, and clearly they know that," Kings Head Coach Jim Hiller said of Armia. "They like to play a defensive, structured system, the Finnish style, I think he fits into that really well. We've seen some offensive pop from him this year, so well deserved. I'm sure he'll play an important role."

It's always nice to see a guy who worked the way Armia does get rewarded, isn’t it? Armia earns what he gets and he’s proven to bring a lot more of an offensive touch to the table with the Kings than he was expected to coming in. His strong start in Los Angeles is one that could perhaps propel him into a slightly larger role than he had back in February. If that materializes, he’ll certainly have earned it.

Kempe and Armia will square off on February 13 in Group B, the second game of the tournament for both teams. Both teams are in Group B, along with Slovakia and the host country, Italy. Sweden and Finland will be the two favorites to earn the bye coming out of the preliminary round, before the tournament advances to a single-elimination format.