News from Tre Kronor today as current Calgary Flames defenceman Rasmus Andersson has made the Swedish Olympic men’s hockey team. The Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 will be held this February.
Andersson represented Sweden at the 4 Nations Face-Off last year, and served as their captain at the World Championships.
A stacked blueline
Andersson struggled to play a consistent role for Sweden at the 4 Nations Face-Off last year. He did not play in either of Sweden’s first two games against Canada and Finland respectively, and made his tournament debut against the USA in Sweden’s final game. He played just 13:17, the sixth most minutes amongst blueliners.
Last season was not one of Andersson’s best, and he has admirably rebounded this year. He’s on pace to set new career highs in goals and points, currently sitting at eight goals and 26 points in 40 games.
With such a stacked blueline, Andersson will need to play extremely well to crack the lineup on a consistent basis, but he has a good chance to do so with some players aging, like Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Erik Karlsson, and others brand new to this type of stage, like Philip Broberg.
Mikael Backlund snubbed from the roster
Based on his body of work alone, Flames captain Mikael Backlund deserved to be on this roster. It appears that Tre Kronor selected Pontus Homberg instead of Backlund which truly doesn’t make a ton of sense. Backlund has once again been a two-way stalwart this season for the Flames, and would have been a very useful player for the Swedes at the Olympics.
Pat Steinberg reported that Backlund is on Sweden’s reserve list.
Perhaps Backlund gets in via injury replacement, but as of now, he will be watching the Olympics from home (or the stands).
