During the 2021-22 NHL season, a writer at The Hockey Writers tackled a complex list of who are the best Sweden-born players in the league. Historically, the country ranks among the best in international hockey, with a couple of Olympic gold medals and a boatload of World Championships.
Presently, eight Swedish players are in the Hockey Hall of Fame, with Henrik Lundqvist most recently joining the group in Nov. 2023. Meanwhile, Niklas Bäckström and Gabriel Landeskog have the skill set to earn recognition; however, their enshrinement will eventually come down to the voting committee, despite the hardware in their trophy cases.
Related: Swedish Players in the Hockey Hall of Fame
Instead of listing Sweden’s most distinguished players, we tackled the country’s best players based on their 2024-25 and early 2025-26 numbers. Realistically, a handful of tenured players with solid resumes should be on the list; however, they were excluded for statistical purposes.
10. Mika Zibanejad – New York Rangers
By the 2025-26 season, there have been over 400 Swedish players in the NHL; however, Mika Zibanejad is in a class all by himself. After a night to remember in 2020, he became the country’s first player with a Golden Goal in an international competition (2012 World Junior Championship) and a five-goal game in the NHL.
The sixth-overall pick in the 2011 Entry Draft broke into the league with the Ottawa Senators in 2011-12 before becoming a regular two seasons later. Eventually, Zibanejad became a prolific goal scorer, averaging 20 or more in eight seasons and reaching a career-high 41 in the shortened 2019-20 campaign. Although his production dipped the following season, he scored 29 goals in 2021-22 and 39 in 2022-23 before reaching the 20-goal plateau for the ninth time in 2023-24.
Related: Revisiting Sweden’s World Junior Championship History
As the New York Rangers’ top center, Zibanejad found chemistry with Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider as they frequently set each other up for goals. As usual, his totals ranked among the top Swedish players in the NHL, a spot he continues to occupy yearly. Although his best season may be in the past, he remains a lethal goal scorer, requiring additional attention when on the ice.
9. Filip Gustavsson – Minnesota Wild
It took a while for Filip Gustavsson to find his footing in the NHL, but he has now become one of the league’s top starting goaltenders. It took two trades, but he finally found his home in Minnesota when he was dealt there before the 2022-23 season. Since then, he has appeared in 147 games with the Wild alongside an 85-62-20 record with a 2.60 goals-against average (GAA) and .914 save percentage (SV%). He also has 12 shutouts.
Gustavsson’s best season came during his first with the Wild, when he put together a dazzling 2.10 GAA and .931 SV% in 37 starts. He struggled to follow up that performance in his second season, but bounced back last season with a 2.56 GAA and .914 SV% alongside a career-high five shutouts, leading the Wild back to the playoffs. Of all the Swedish goaltenders in the NHL last season, he ended up being the best, receiving votes for the Hart and Vezina Trophies.
8. Victor Hedman – Tampa Bay Lightning
Victor Hedman is bound for the Hall of Fame when he retires. At 34, he’s won two Stanley Cup titles, a Norris Trophy, and a Conn Smythe Trophy. As one of his generation’s top defensemen, there were some questions about whether he lost a step or not in 2022-23, dropping to just 49 points in 76 games after netting a career-high 85 in the season prior.
Last season, Hedman laid to rest any claims that he could have lost a step, reaching double digits in goals for the 10th time in his career and collecting over 60 points for the fifth time. He also reached double digits in plus/minus for the eighth time over the past 10 seasons.
7. Rasmus Dahlin – Buffalo Sabres
Drafted first overall by the Buffalo Sabres in 2018, Rasmus Dahlin has quickly established himself as one of the best young defenders in the league. At age 18, he debuted in the NHL during the 2018-19 season and put up a solid nine goals and 44 points in 82 games, finishing third in Calder Trophy voting behind Elias Pettersson and Jordan Binnington.
Since that first season, Dahlin has become a rock on the Sabres’ blue line. As of this writing, he has 83 goals and 365 points in 515 games, including a career-high 15 goals and 73 points in 2022-23. He has hit double-digits in goals four times already, and is good for at least 50 points a season. He has also shown a capacity for leadership as he was named captain of the Sabres ahead of the 2024-25 season.
6. Rickard Rakell – Pittsburgh Penguins
It didn’t take long for Rickard Rakell to showcase his goalscoring ability in the NHL. After scoring only nine goals in his rookie season, he has proceeded to hit double-digits in all but two since then, hitting at least 20 goals five times, including three 30-goal campaigns. After being drafted by the Anaheim Ducks 30th overall in 2011, he played parts of 10 seasons in Anaheim, where he put up 154 goals and 339 points in 550 games, which included two of the previously mentioned 30-goal seasons – back-to-back in 2016-17 and 2018-19.
Unfortunately, Rakell fell into a bit of a slump after his career-high 34 goals in 2017-18, falling to 18 and 15 goals in 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively. This led to a trade to the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he’s been ever since. Surrounded by future Hall-of-Famers, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, he has rediscovered his offensive touch and has gotten back to his consistent double-digit production. He even had his first 30-goal season since that career year back in 2018-19, hitting a new benchmark of 35 goals and 70 points in 2024-25.
5. Adrian Kempe – Los Angeles Kings
Adrian Kempe is one of the few Swedish-born players who has found modest success in the NHL after being drafted in the first round (29th overall) in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. During his first season, he scored just two goals in 25 games before becoming a regular in the Los Angeles Kings’ lineup in 2017-18, where he scored 16 times.
Slowly, Kempe has established himself as an elite goal scorer, netting 35 in 2021-22 before setting a career-high with 41 in 2022-23. Considering he plays half of his games on the West Coast, most fans who live in the Eastern time zones don’t get to see him in action, just catching the highlights.
Last season, Kempe had over 20 goals for the fourth straight season and is closing in on 200 in his career. He notched his third 30-goal campaign in 2024-25 and nearly matched the career-high 75 points he set in 2023-24 with 73 points.
4. Filip Forsberg – Nashville Predators
Since becoming a regular player for the Nashville Predators in 2014-15, Filip Forsberg had never missed the playoffs until the 2022-23 season, when the team came just three points shy of advancing to their ninth straight postseason. In 2022-23, Forsberg finished fourth in team scoring with 42 points, his lowest total in an 82-game season.
In 2023-24, Forsberg powered the Predators back into contention, reaching the 40-goal plateau for the second time in his career and finished the campaign by surpassing his career-high of 84 points. In fact, he became the first forward in team history to collect 90 points, finishing with 94. He couldn’t replicate that feat again last season, but still finished with 31 goals and 76 points, the third time he’s eclipsed 70 in his career.
3. Lucas Raymond – Detroit Red Wings
After scoring 58 goals and 152 points over the last two seasons, Lucas Raymond climbs to number three on this list. He finished his fourth campaign in the Motor City with a career-high 80 points and is now one of the Detroit Red Wings’ most important players. Selected fourth overall in the 2020 Draft, he burst onto the scene in his rookie season in 2021-22 at 19 years old and finished fourth in Calder Trophy voting. He had a bit of a sophomore slump in 2022-23 with only 17 goals and 45 points in 74 games, but of course, rebounded nicely with his first 30-goal season and a 27-point jump in production. He couldn’t hit 30 again last season, but increased his assist total to a career-high 53, showcasing his playmaking side.
Known for his speed, playmaking, and now, goalscoring, Raymond is a constant threat on the ice and will likely hit 100 points at some point in his career. He is an exciting player to watch and will only get better as he builds strength and continues to adjust to the North American game. He’s a superstar in the making and should be in the realm of other great Swedes who have played for the Red Wings in no time – if he isn’t already, that is.
2. William Nylander – Toronto Maple Leafs
Since the start of the 2023-24 season, when William Nylander set a franchise record with points in his first 17 games, it could be argued that he is the best Swedish player in the NHL today. Despite playing in the shadow of Auston Matthews and his 69 goals, Nylander was the Toronto Maple Leafs’ leading scorer for most of the season.
Skating in the final year of his contract, many wondered if Nylander, whose career high was previously 87 points, would be able to cash in a deal worth $9 to $10 million he was seeking in the summer of 2024. So, under pressure to silence the doubters, he made a run for his first 100-point campaign, finishing two points shy of the mark with 98.
After an excellent start to the 2024-25 campaign, the Maple Leafs extended Nylander for eight years at $11.5 million annually. Although he fell to 84 points by the end of the season, he remained a lethal goalscorer, notching his third-straight 40-goal campaign – a career-high 45 goals.
1. Jesper Bratt – New Jersey Devils
Jesper Bratt is a sixth-round pick (162nd overall) from the 2016 Entry Draft. Usually, prospects selected so late take a while to develop into NHL regulars if they ever make it all. Rarely do teams find hidden gems that become stars and eventually lead their team in scoring. Thus far, after eight seasons, Bratt continues to defy those odds.
The native of Stockholm, Sweden, routinely scored 30-35 points over his four seasons before a breakout campaign in 2021-22, with a career-high 73 points. Because he was a pending restricted free agent, the New Jersey Devils offered him a one-year deal, which led to him netting 32 goals and 73 points for the second consecutive season. Bratt inked an eight-year extension as one of the lineup’s core players.
Although New Jersey took a step back in 2023-24 and missed the postseason after advancing to the second round in 2022-23, Bratt led the team in scoring again with 83 points. He battled generational talent Jack Hughes all season for the top spot but won the Devils’ scoring title for the second time in three seasons. Then, last season, he hit another career-high, increasing his point total to 88, and won the scoring title again. He now sits first on this list after recording the most points among Swedes, four ahead of William Nylander, who has paced it the last two seasons.
Honorable Mentions
After ranking this year’s top ten Swedish players, the list did not include a handful of skaters who deserve recognition for their most recent efforts. Here are the names of those who didn’t make the list, including William Eklund (San Jose Sharks), Simon Holmstrom (New York Islanders), Jakob Markstrom (New Jersey Devils), Gustav Forsling (Florida Panthers), Erik Karlsson (Pittsburgh Penguins), Leo Carlsson (Anaheim Ducks), and Elias Pettersson (Vancouver Canucks).
Related: Swedish-Born Captains in NHL History
So far in 2025-26, 70 Swedish players (eight goalies) have skated in the NHL, which is a decrease from 97 from last season. Despite the career years from several players in 2024-25, many names on the list continue to do what they do best: score goals, collect points, and make saves, while representing Sweden to hockey fans across the globe.
