Sweden will be playing host at the 2024 World Juniors in the city of Gothenburg. Now they have their squad that will seek the country’s third ever gold medal and first since 2012. They’re going to have a legitimate shot at it.

For whatever reason, Sweden has struggled to win the top prize at this tournament. Sweden has taken the silver medal 11 times and bronze seven times. Last year, they finished fourth after a wild OT loss to Team USA in the bronze-medal game. 

Sweden will be returning nine players from last year’s fourth-place team, many of whom were part of a gold-medal win at the Under-18 Men’s World Championship in 2022.

The team will be led by Magnus Hävelid, who coached that U18 team to gold and had his first stint behind the World Junior bench last year. And here is the team that will be looking to defend home ice and break Sweden’s lengthy golden drought.

The team will be without the top player in the age group, Leo Carlsson, who has been having an excellent rookie season with the Anaheim Ducks after going second overall at the 2023 NHL Draft.

They will, however, have eight first-round NHL Draft picks on the roster going into the tournament. This team is going to be a force to be reckoned with, especially with the home crowd behind them.

Forwards

Isac Born, Filip Bystedt (SJS), David Edstrom (VGK), Zeb Forsfjäll (SEA), Jonathan Lekkerimäki (VAN), Liam Öhgren (MIN), Noah Östlund (BUF), Oskar Pettersson (OTT), Rasmus Rudslätt, Otto Stenberg (STL), Felix Unger Sörum (CAR), Fabian Wagner (WPG), Anton Wahlberg (BUF)

Defense

Mattias Hävelid (SJS), Anton Johansson (DET), Jakob Norén, Elias Pettersson (VAN), Elias Salomonsson (WPG), Axel Sandin Pellikka (DET), Tom Willander (VAN)

Goalies

Hugo Hävelid, Kevin Reidler (OTT), Melker Thelin (ARI)

Analysis

Sweden's team is pretty well loaded. They've got a legitimate top-six forward group that should be able to find the net. Even though they'll be without Leo Carlsson who could have helped this team become the legitimate favorite for the tournament, they're going to be tough to match up against. Returnees Lekkerimäki, Öhgren and Östlund all have played together internationally and at the club level before and have proven tough to slow down internationally. Meanwhile, Axel Sandin Pellikka was essentially Sweden's top defenseman at the last World Juniors. Experience counts for a lot and this group has plenty of that.

The defensive group aside from Sandin Pellikka has a lot of talent. Tom Willander can be a legit shutdown option for them, while others like Anton Johansson and Elias Pettersson showed at the summer evaluation camp in Michigan that they can be tough to match up against as well. Elias Salomonsson could very well be a top-four option for them who brings some size and defensive sense to the table. He also showed over the summer that he's bringing more physical edge to the position. Meanwhile, we should probably expect Mattias Hävelid to play a significant role behind Sandin Pellikka as a legitimate puck-moving and offensive threat from the back end.

At the goaltending position, Hugo Hävelid is among the most seasoned. He was the gold-medal goalie for Sweden at the 2022 U18 Worlds and put together one of the biggest performances I'd seen in that tournament to beat USA. He's undersized, but incredibly athletic and poised. Meanwhile Kevin Reidler, who currently plays for the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the USHL, has played well this season and is a massive human at 6-foot-6. The expectation is Hävelid will start, but they have some good options behind him.

This is a very talented Swedish roster and even though they have struggled at the World Juniors historically when it comes to winning the big one, they're absolutely to be taken seriously as a threat for the gold medal.