Team Sweden announced their final roster for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-off in February, with one surprising omission: Pittsburgh Penguins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/]' Rickard Rakell. Penguins forward Rickard Rakell was left off of Sweden's 4 Nations roster. Should he have been included? Unfortunately, the Penguins' leading goal scorer, the only skater with ten lamplighters, was not selected for Sweden. Despite being the country's fourth-highest goal scorer [https://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?reportType=season&seasonFrom=20242025&seasonTo=20242025&gameType=2&nationalityCode=SWE&sort=goals&page=0&pageSize=50], the 31-year-old, who has 16 points in 27 games with a plus-2 rating, was overlooked and missed out on this opportunity to some other veterans and younger guys getting their first cracks at the senior level. Interestingly, Sweden selected several players, such as Elias Pettersson (natural center), Lucas Raymond (natural left wing), and William Nylander (natural right wing), but penciled them in different positions, which left no room for a natural right winger like Rakell to squeeze into the lineup. Since Sweden and Finland were the first countries to announce their final rosters, the debates will only begin with these two teams and expand to Canada and the United States later in the day when their final lineups are announced. The 4 Nations Face-off [https://www.nhl.com/events/2025-4-nations-face-off] will be held from Feb 12 to 20 at the Bell Centre in Montreal and TD Garden in Boston. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjEwNjYwNDIwMDI3OTUwOTI5/thnpitbanner.png]
