Kraken prospect Oscar Fisker Molgaard and his Denmark teammates are guaranteed to play two more games this weekend at the 2025 IIHF World Championship as the medal round unfolds in Stockholm. After losing the first three games at Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, DK, the Danes have run off five straight wins, including Thursday’s stunning upset of top seed Canada. Molgaard has racked up a goal and six assists, none timelier than sending a stretch pass that he bounced off the Germany end-boards so the puck landed on Winnipeg Jets forward and countryman Nikolaj Ehlers’ stick blade for a late tying goal that allowed Denmark to win in a shootout to qualify for the knockout-round quarterfinals.
Denmark faces the tourney’s other No. 1 seed, Switzerland, Saturday (9:20 a.m., NHL Network) after the day’s opener between Team USA and Sweden (5:20 a.m., NHLN). Five players from the Kraken organization remain in the hunt for gold and other medals: Matty Beniers, Joey Daccord, Mikey Eyssimont for the U.S., Adam Larsson with Sweden and Molgaard. It’s guaranteed that either the Americans or Larsson play in the gold-medal game Sunday (11:20 a.m., NHLN) after Saturday’s defeated squads match up in Sunday’s bronze-medal game (6:20 a.m., NHLN).
Paired with seven impressive games for AHL affiliate Coachella Valley as the team secured home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs, Molgaard is getting the deep experience in high-pressure, high-level competition that the Kraken player development group loves for prospects’ growth.
“The past two months have been an impressive stretch for Oscar,” said Jeff Tambellini, Kraken director of player development, on Friday. “He’s delivered strong performances with Coachella Valley and Team Denmark, showing he can impact games against top-tier competition. We believe these experiences will help fast-track his progression toward the NHL.”
Past Danish Star on Current Danish Star
Frans Nielsen, former NHLer and Danish IIHF Hall of Fame player who was the first Denmark-trained player in the NHL, is the Kraken’s player development consultant in Europe. He has worked closely with Molgaard since he was drafted two years ago. He admits to a bit of rooting while saying “my number one job is Oscar” while attending Team Denmark’s games.
“I’ve been a fan too,” said Nielsen by phone Friday night in Denmark after happily attending an IIHF dinner during which he no doubt had plenty to discuss. “It took me some time to fall asleep Thursday night, I just couldn’t believe it. We came to Stockholm, and that’s the big story. Everybody is talking about it.
“Canada came out hard in the first period, and I thought the long change in the second period might be difficult for [Denmark], but the team raised their games and took it to the Canadians, pushing the pace themselves too.”
Nielsen echoes his boss’ sentiments about Molgaard stepping up his individual game to benefit the team: “We’re excited to see him put it all together at this tournament. He is driving offense and being ‘the’ guy on his line ... as a younger guy [he played in Sweden’s top pro league at age 18], he didn’t want to make a mistake that would cost the team. Now he is playing on his toes.”
Nielsen explained Molgaard has benefited from studying the play of potential Kraken teammate Matty Beniers. Denmark lost its Group B opener to Beniers and Team USA, 5-0, with the Seattle center scoring a pair of goals and looking speedy and strong in all zones.
“Oscar has been watching how Matty plays off the puck for two years and how Matty uses his skating,” said Nielsen, who appeared in 925 NHL games for the New York Islanders and Detroit Red Wings and played a big part in Denmark reaching the quarterfinals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. “Playing Matty in that first game really pushed Oscar to see how his own skating can influence the game and his team’s offense.”
Home, Sweet and Loud, Home in Denmark
Molgaard called the celebration and crowd support “unreal” after the win over Germany to reach the Worlds quarterfinals. When Denmark scored two goals in the final two minutes-plus Thursday, the first at 2:15 on the clock to tie Canada and the second, with 49 seconds left, to secure a spot in the medal round, Molgaard called it “surreal.” It’s been a good week for superlatives in Denmark.
“I think most of us still couldn’t quite comprehend what had just happened,” said Molgaard about the clock running out on Canada’s final push. “Being able to share this experience and sing the anthem in front of our home fans is something I’ll never forget. Seeing my parents, brother, friends and family after the game was awesome. A lot of emotions and pure happiness. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Molgaard has played with confidence and looked equal to the task throughout the tournament, and spread those six assists over three games in the current win streak. He and his teammates didn’t lose their collective confidence when trailing late Thursday against the Canadians. It helped the Danes' mindset that they kept Canada (34 goals in seven qualifying round games) off the scoreboard until the early third period, and player of the game, goalie Frederik Dichow, was matching Canada goalie Jordan Binnington in making big saves to keep the score 1-0. As the clock ticked toward two minutes remaining, Molgaard said the Denmark players kept the faith.
“Obviously, it was a tough spot to be in, but we felt like we were still in the game,” said Molgaard during a Friday phone exchange. “We had some chances before the goal, and we kept on pushing, and then it finally came!
“We kept believing and played with our hearts, and you can go a long way with that. I was just enjoying myself out there. It is not every day you get to play a quarterfinal on home ice against such a strong Canadian team. I was trying to get the most out of it and give it my all.”
Turns out Molgaard is the right person to ask about his nation’s 24-year-old folk-hero goaltender Dichow: “It’s pretty hard to even explain the game he had. He and I are roomies and have played together in Sweden [in the top pro league] the past two years. To see him step up like that when most needed was just awesome. I know how hard he works. I am just so happy for him. I think we as a team did a good job of keeping Canada on the outside, but when we needed him the most, he came up with some huge saves.”
