When the roster for Sweden's men's Olympic ice hockey team was announced in early January, the omission of 23-year-old defenseman Victor Hedman raised eyebrows across the hockey world. Hedman, after all, is massive, skilled and is excelling while handling tough competition and playing top-pairing minutes for an over-achieving Lightning team this season. He's also 11th in the league in point per game from a defenseman.
But not only was Hedman left off of the Tre Kronor's 25-man Olympic roster, he doesn't even appear on the reserve list. Per Risto Pakarinen:
SWE coach Mårts's reserve list for Sochi, via DN: G: Lehner, D: Grossmann, Gustafsson, Brodin, S. Kronwall, F: Hörnqvist, Johansson, Nyquist
— Puckarinen (@puckarinen) January 24, 2014
So defenders Nicklas Grossman, Erik Gustafsson, Jonas Brodin and Staffan Kronwall are ahead of Victor Hedman on the Swedish Olympic team's blue-line depth chart? Not on merit they're not.
In a conversation with Swedish media outlet Expressen following Thursday night's Lightning game, Hedman said that he'd heard his proficiency in both ends was seen as an issue by the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation, for some baffling reason.
Hedman also mentioned that he was informed of the news that he hadn't made the Olympic team by e-mail. That's cold Sweden.
