On March 19, Stockholm was announced as the host city for the upcoming National Hockey League (NHL) Global Series. Stockholm is Sweden’s capital city, with over 900,000 people calling the area home.
The Global Series has been an annual event for the past 15 years. Having teams play games in places like Sweden, Czechia and even Japan gives fans outside of North America a taste of NHL action.
The games will take place on November 14 and 16, featuring the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins. Both games will be played at the hallowed Avicii Arena, Sweden’s largest hockey arena.
Both Pittsburgh and Nashville are debutants to playing in Sweden but have played in past Global Series games.
“Obviously, for us, it’s nice because you have a lot of friends and family there and at the same time, it’s nice to be able to show your teammates your home country and maybe put a picture to some of the things you talk about a lot and they’re asking you about,” Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson told reporters.
“I come from a small town, so I never got the chance to see any professional hockey until I was probably 16 or 17. I think it’s a great thing that the NHL does right now.”
For Karlsson, as well as his Penguins teammate Rickard Rakell and Nashville forward Filip Forsberg, next season’s global series is much more than a game. Instead, it is a chance to play in front of friends and family.
Pittsburgh and Nashville both have three Swedish players on their respective rosters.
“It’s very exciting, just the chance to play in my home country and play in front of family and friends and people growing up, different coaches that [don’t] really have the chance to come and see me play over here,” Rakell told reporters. “And my grandma, just for her to have the chance to see me play, it’ll be a lot of fun.”
Rakell played his junior hockey for AIK, a Swedish Hockey League team based in Stockholm.
“This is just a different world. It’s so far away from the small hockey kids back home. It’s just bigger than anything. The Swedish Hockey League, it’s a good League, but everybody dreams of the NHL,” said Rakell. “The hockey interest is huge. I mean, for kids to have a chance to get close and watch NHL players and guys like Sid, Tanger, Geno, it’s a really big deal.”
Many successful players have come from Sweden like retired NHL players Nicklas Lidstrom, Hendrik Zetterberg, the Sedin Twins and Mats Sundin.
The continued success of the Swedish players have helped pave the way for some of the NHL’s best and brightest young stars, including Lucas Raymond, Filip Gustavsson and both Elias Pettersson’s on Vancouver.
In addition, the Swedish Men’s National Team has a history of success in global events.
The Tre Kronor, which means three crowns in English, is part of the “Big Six” nations of international hockey. This designation means that Sweden is one of the top hockey nations in the world, alongside countries like Canada and Finland.
Since 2020, Sweden has won two medals at the World Juniors, a silver and a bronze. One of those medals came in a losing effort to the U.S. on home soil in Gothenburg in 2023. The team featured future NHL talent like Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Axel Sandin Pellikka.
Meanwhile, the team’s last World Championship medal came last May, which was a bronze. The team earned the medal in a 4-2 win over Canada.
“When I first started watching [hockey], there were no [live] games. You had to kind of watch them on replay because there were no early games or anything like that,” Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg told reporters. “It’s just grown and grown to this point. I feel like there’s an early game every day pretty much for people to watch back there. I think it’s going to be a really cool experience for sure.”
