Team Sweden has released its full 23-man roster for February’s 4 Nations Face-Off.

Forwards Elias Pettersson, Jesper Bratt, William Karlsson, Leo Carlsson, Lucas Raymond, Viktor Arvidsson, Elias Lindholm, Gustav Nyquist, Adrian Kempe and Joel Eriksson Ek, and defensemen Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Ekholm, Jonas Brodin and Rasmus Andersson were added to Team Sweden’s roster for the international best-on-best tournament.

Sweden had already named forwards William Nylander, Mika Zibanejad and Filip Forsberg, and defensemen Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson and Gustav Forsling to its roster.

Jacob Markström, Linus Ullmark and Filip Gustavsson are Sweden’s three goaltenders for the tournament.

Sam Hallam will lead Team Sweden as their head coach. He told The Athletic recently that it is possible that former NHLer Daniel Alfredsson could also have a role with Team Sweden for the tournament.

The 4 Nations Face-Off will take place in Montreal and Boston from Feb. 12 to 20.

Full roster

(Note: Highlighted players had already been named to the roster.)

Snubs

With Forsling, Hedman and Karlsson already named in June, there were only four spots on the blue line open with more than double the choices available. It was never going to be easy to make those final few D picks.

Hampus Lindholm, Adam Larsson, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Simon Edvinsson and Philip Broberg were among the good NHL blueliners passed over, and I do wonder how much Lindholm’s injury status played into that final decision.

But it’s hard to argue with taking any of Mattias Ekholm, Rasmus Andersson, Rasmus Dahlin and Jonas Brodin.

I probably would have gone with Lindholm over Brodin myself, but that’s a close call, to be sure. Lindholm is still out a few more weeks for the Boston Bruins, so again, with the tournament two months away, I’m not sure why that injury should have overly mattered. Besides, Brodin himself is currently injured.

Perhaps some people would have taken Lindholm over Andersson, too, but the Swedes are short on right-handed D so that certainly played in Andersson’s favor.

Up front, William Eklund was the top-scoring NHL Swede left off the 4 Nations roster. And I’m surprised veteran Flames captain Mikael Backlund was left off. — Pierre LeBrun, senior NHL columnist

Surprises

For me, it’s no Backlund or Lindholm. Both are tremendous defensive players at each of their respective positions. I asked Hallam back more than a month ago about his team’s overall philosophy entering the 4 Nations and he said this:

“It’s about winning. Getting to the final and winning,” Hallam said. “I won’t say that there’s an ideology that I stand for, I think we have to see the circumstances here. We get together for two days and then we have to play Canada. I think you know a couple of guys in their lineup (he chuckled). We need to be ready to play very well defensively and take our chances. I believe in that. Traditionally, Sweden has always had their biggest strengths in the team game. We want to keep on building on that tradition.

“We also have some offensive firepower in our lineup and of course want to put them in good situations,’’ he added. “But in a short period like this, it’s going to be a lot of smart plays, smart defensive plays, having the patience and having the structure to stay in the game and control some of the best players in the world.”

So that last part of smart defensive hockey just left me with the impression that guys like Lindholm and Backlund would have a role. — LeBrun

Expectations

Hallam is the only head coach in the 4 Nations event who has full autonomy on roster selection, and his decision-making was on full display Wednesday with the Swedish team reveal.

It is a talented squad that will try to win low-scoring games.

The expectation is to win it all, as Hallam shared with The Athletic. And the Swedes have the team to do it. They’re especially deep on the blue line and in goal.

I’m curious whether they will match up well enough offensively with Team USA and Team Canada. That’s where I would have concern.

But traditionally the Swedes come together quickly and that’s key in a short event. Don’t count them out. — LeBrun

Required reading

(Photo: Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)