News from Tre Kronor today as current Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson has made the Swedish Olympic men’s hockey team. The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in February.
Andersson represented Sweden at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off and was their captain at the World Championships.
A stacked blue line
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 matches against Canada and Finland respectively, and made his tournament debut against the US in Sweden’s final match. He played just 13:17, the sixth-most minutes among blueliners.
Last season wasn’t one of Andersson’s best, and this year he has rebounded admirably. He is on pace to reach new career highs in goals and points, currently at eight goals and 26 points in 40 games.
With such a stacked blueline, Andersson will have to play extremely well to improve the lineup on a consistent basis, but he has a good chance to do that with some players getting older, like Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Erik Karlsson, and others brand new to this kind of stage, like Philip Broberg.
Mikael Backlund was dropped from the squad
Based on his body of work alone, Flames captain Mikael Backlund deserved to be on this roster. It looks like Tre Kronor picked Pontus Homberg instead of Backlund, which really doesn’t make much sense. Backlund was again a strong partner for the Flames this season and would have been a very useful player for the Swedes in the Olympics.
Pat Steinberg reported that Backlund is on the Swedish reserve list.
Maybe Backlund comes in via injury replacement, but from now on he’ll be watching the Olympics from home (or the stands).
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