NHL Winter Olympics all-time roster for Sweden features several legends

The Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 will feature something the world hasn't seen in 12 years, NHL players.

For the first time since the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the best hockey players in the world will be back on biggest of international stages, with 12 countries vying for the gold medal.

NHL players first went to the Winter Olympics in 1998 (Nagano), and returned in 2002 (Salt Lake City, 2006 (Turin), 2010 (Vancouver) and 2014.

All of those Olympics featured incredible players, but what if the countries had to pare down all the NHL players from those five Olympics into one team?

That's what NHL.com has done, putting together all-time Olympic rosters of NHL players for select countries.

Today, NHL.com senior writers Amalie Benjamin and Tom Gulitti and NHL.se writer Janne Bengtsson present their all-time roster for Team Sweden:

Explore NHL.com's Coverage of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026

FORWARDS (14)

Daniel Alfredsson
P.J. Axelsson
Nicklas Backstrom
Peter Forsberg
Tomas Holmstrom
Patric Hornqvist
Gabriel Landeskog
Markus Naslund
Mikael Renberg
Tomas Sandstrom
Daniel Sedin
Henrik Sedin
Mats Sundin
Henrik Zetterberg

This well-rounded group includes the top nine Sweden-born forwards in NHL points: Sundin (1,349), Alfredsson (1,157), Henrik Sedin (1,070), Daniel Sedin (1,041), Backstrom (1,033), Zetterberg (960), Forsberg (885), Naslund (869) and Sandstrom (856). It also features a four-time Stanley Cup winner in Holmstrom (1997, 1998, 2002, 2008) and two-time winner in Hornqvist (2016, 2017), and the second captain from Sweden to win the Cup in Landeskog (2022, after Nicklas Lidstrom in 2008). Alfredsson, who played in all five previous Olympics to include NHL players (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014) had 27 points (13 goals, 14 assists) in 26 games in the Olympics, including a tournament-leading 10 points (five goals, five assists) when Sweden won the gold medal at the 2006 Torino Games. Forsberg’s postage stamp shootout goal to win gold came in the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, which was before NHL players participated, but he played in three additional Olympics, including on the 2006 gold medal team. -- Gulitti

DEFENSEMEN (7)

Tommy Albelin
Calle Johansson
Erik Karlsson
Niklas Kronwall
Nicklas Lidstrom
Mattias Norstrom
Mattias Ohlund

Led by four-time Stanley Cup champion and seven-time Norris Trophy winner Lidstrom, Sweden's Tre Kronor field a technically skilled and powerful defense on our all-Olympic team. A lineup with well over 8,000 games of experience from the NHL and from 15 Winter Olympics. The only active player is Karlsson, who has won the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the NHL three times and who dominated the only Olympics he played in, scoring eight points (four goals, four assists) in six games in Sochi. Lidstrom, who played his entire career with the Detroit Red Wings and is one of the League’s all-time best defensemen, played in four Olympic games (1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010) and scored the game-winning goal in the 3-2 victory in the Olympic final against Finland in Torino, Italy, in 2006, assisted by Forsberg and Sundin, who are key players in the forward lineup. Among Sweden's defensemen are also two-time Stanley Cup champion and defensive specialist Albelin and defensive and physical defenseman Norstrom. Kronwall, who excelled in physical play and created the ”you have been Kronwalled” legacy with his rock-hard body language, is an integral part of the defensive lineup, as are skilled passers and loyal defensemen Ohlund and Johansson, a leader on the ice. -- Bengtsson

GOALIES (2)

Henrik Lundqvist
Tommy Salo

The goalies was one of the easiest possible calls: Hockey Hall of Famer Lundqvist. It was Lundqvist’s save on Olli Jokinen with 15 seconds remaining in the gold-medal game against Finland that helped Sweden win its 2006 gold medal. As Mats Sundin said in November, “Probably he’s the only goalie in the world at the time that would have made that save, came in across the crease. Jokinen had pretty much an empty net. He made the save and there’s the gold.” Lundqvist played in the Olympics three times. Our backup goalie is slightly more controversial, given the goal from close to center ice that Salo allowed to Belarus in the quarterfinals at the 2002 Olympics in a 4-3 loss, but he gets the nod for being named to three Olympic teams for Sweden, plus his 526-game Olympic career, in which he had a 2.55 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage for three teams, while earning the third-most wins among Swedish goalies all-time. -- Benjamin