Sweden definitely has a ton of good players (probably the next most after Canada, ahead of the US IMO), but it's been a while since they had an elite superstar that could compete with the likes of Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin and Stamkos.
IIRC, Alfredsson was the last Swedish forward to score 100 points and Lidstrom is an first-ballot HHOF defenseman, but where are the next generation of great Swedish players? Karlsson looks promising, but he could also become another Mike Green.
Henrik Sedin? Daniel Sedin? Nicklas Backstrom? 112, 104 and 101 points for them respectively in the last 3 seasons.
You shouldn't focus on Sweden in general. The town creating stars in Sweden is named Örnsköldsvik. A little town with only 29 000 residents should actually be the center of attention.
Sweden got 3 Art Ross winners, they were all born in Örnsköldsvik. (Peter Forsberg, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin) That makes it 1 in 10 000 to win the Art Ross if you're born there?
NHL-players born in Örnsköldsvik: Peter Forsberg (Art Ross, Calder, Hart Trophy. Stanley cup x2, OL-gold x2, WC-gold x2) Daniel Sedin (Art Ross, Ted Lindsay Award, OL-gold) Henrik Sedin (Art Ross, Hart Trophy, OL-gold) Markus Näslund (Lester B. Pearson Award. League MVP voted by players) Victor Hedman
Very true so how come Sweden doesn't produce many great soccer players? Denmark for example has half the population of Sweden and is light years ahead of them.
Whomever is in charge for Swedish hockey should be hired by Swedish soccer.
You shouldn't focus on Sweden in general. The town creating stars in Sweden is named Örnsköldsvik. A little town with only 29 000 residents should actually be the center of attention.
Sweden got 3 Art Ross winners, they were all born in Örnsköldsvik. (Peter Forsberg, Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin) That makes it 1 in 10 000 to win the Art Ross if you're born there?
NHL-players born in Örnsköldsvik: Peter Forsberg (Art Ross, Calder, Hart Trophy. Stanley cup x2, OL-gold x2, WC-gold x2) Daniel Sedin (Art Ross, Ted Lindsay Award, OL-gold) Henrik Sedin (Art Ross, Hart Trophy, OL-gold) Markus Näslund (Lester B. Pearson Award. League MVP voted by players) Victor Hedman
and thomas gradin (not a native but played for modo). he led the canucks in playoffscoring during our '82 finals run. that little mining town has been pretty good to us.
Country of 9.5 million (1/3rd the size of Canada) produces a prodigious amount of talent? There have always been great Swedes in the league, but the new generation is staggering.
The bolded part is a load of bull, have you ever been outside of Canada/NA?
This thread took a weird turn after a bunch of insecure canadians posted. Sweden is doing a really great job in producing hockeyplayers, let's just leave it at that - without involving Canada (for whatever reason you should in a thread like this).
I don't know why you took it the wrong way. I meant that in Sweden, the vast majority of development is into hockey and soccer. American Football, Basketball, Rugby, Cricket, Baseball and other team sports are not as big in Sweden. As far as I know, its soccer and hockey. Meanwhile in Canada, you have hockey, football, baseball, basketball, and soccer. All of which have at least one Canadian team at the highest level, and domestic development leagues within. I can't say that there are any Swedes in the MLB, NFL/CFL, or NBA, while there are Canadians. That's all I meant.
You don't even know what kind of different sports they play in Sweden.
Yeah Canadians got "The Major Sports". In Sweden there are just much more like floorball, handball, volleyball, skiing, swimming, track and field...
And because the pie is sliced into more pieces in Sweden, they produce better players. It doesn't harm your hockey skills to play also handball, floorball and soccer. That makes you special player. It's not "I play only hockey"
In my opinion Sweden has the best system and culture to produce tons of good young players.
In terms of MAJOR leagues, that attract MAJOR money and MAJOR fans, I would say its just soccer and hockey in Sweden. All those other amateur sports you mentioned (and I say amateur as in most of the athletes don't get paid, not as an insult) exist in every country, but do not count as major national team games. I would assume you probably don't have Swedish newspapers, radios and TV shows talking about handlball or floorball.
In Canada meanwhile, sure the NHL is #1, but the MLB, NBA, NFL, MLS, and CFL all are major leagues (especially the MLB, NBA, NFL) that attract millions of fans, billions of dollars, and huge amounts of conversation of TV, radio, newspapers, magazines. Canada still has those smaller sports too, which also take up smaller pieces of the pie. But there are large pieces taken up by players who commit to soccer, football, hockey, baseball, and basketball. Whereas I don't think that happens in Sweden.
I don't know why you took it the wrong way. I meant that in Sweden, the vast majority of development is into hockey and soccer. American Football, Basketball, Rugby, Cricket, Baseball and other team sports are not as big in Sweden. As far as I know, its soccer and hockey. Meanwhile in Canada, you have hockey, football, baseball, basketball, and soccer. All of which have at least one Canadian team at the highest level, and domestic development leagues within. I can't say that there are any Swedes in the MLB, NFL/CFL, or NBA, while there are Canadians. That's all I meant.
Are you just making stuff up? Canadians make up less than 1% of the other three elite leagues in North America MLB/NFL/NBA - the CFL and MLS are not elite leagues.
You're also making up excuses for an attack that no one made...
And there are swedes that play in the leagues which you claimed had none.
Canada also wrecks in curling...
Last edited by The Fat Kid: 04-30-2012 at 02:10 PM.
In terms of MAJOR leagues, that attract MAJOR money and MAJOR fans, I would say its just soccer and hockey in Sweden. All those other amateur sports you mentioned (and I say amateur as in most of the athletes don't get paid, not as an insult) exist in every country, but do not count as major national team games. I would assume you probably don't have Swedish newspapers, radios and TV shows talking about handlball or floorball.
In Canada meanwhile, sure the NHL is #1, but the MLB, NBA, NFL, MLS, and CFL all are major leagues (especially the MLB, NBA, NFL) that attract millions of fans, billions of dollars, and huge amounts of conversation of TV, radio, newspapers, magazines. Canada still has those smaller sports too, which also take up smaller pieces of the pie. But there are large pieces taken up by players who commit to soccer, football, hockey, baseball, and basketball. Whereas I don't think that happens in Sweden.
NFL, MLB etc. is only "Major" in North America. Over in Europe other sports could be considered "Major".
The statistics are for people in Sweden aged between 7-70. The amount figures are in the thousands so Football for men is 434 000 or 12 % of the population in question. The figures are for those active in competition in a series or organized training activities (i.e being active in a team or a club). I have translated the sports that would be the most difficult to translate.
Very true so how come Sweden doesn't produce many great soccer players? Denmark for example has half the population of Sweden and is light years ahead of them.
Whomever is in charge for Swedish hockey should be hired by Swedish soccer.
Right on.
Ravelli does deserve honorable mention though. Just for being so .. Swedish.
In all seriousnes we should include Zlatan in the great players department and there's a few others that are pretty good also. They just doesn't seem to gel on the national team.
I don't know why you took it the wrong way. I meant that in Sweden, the vast majority of development is into hockey and soccer. American Football, Basketball, Rugby, Cricket, Baseball and other team sports are not as big in Sweden. As far as I know, its soccer and hockey. Meanwhile in Canada, you have hockey, football, baseball, basketball, and soccer. All of which have at least one Canadian team at the highest level, and domestic development leagues within. I can't say that there are any Swedes in the MLB, NFL/CFL, or NBA, while there are Canadians. That's all I meant.
I "took it wrong" because you are posting garbage, you obviously have no idea about which sports are popular in Sweden and what kind of activities/sports that kids play either.
Just because a certain sport isn't big in NA/Canada doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, please look up handball and floorball for example. You're just making yourself look like a fool with your ignorant posts.
In Sweden we don't care about many of your sports, like baseball and american football (NFL), instead we got other sports.
Sweden definitely has a ton of good players (probably the next most after Canada, ahead of the US IMO), but it's been a while since they had an elite superstar that could compete with the likes of Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin and Stamkos.
IIRC, Alfredsson was the last Swedish forward to score 100 points and Lidstrom is an first-ballot HHOF defenseman, but where are the next generation of great Swedish players? Karlsson looks promising, but he could also become another Mike Green.
that Henrik Sedin guy has as many Hart trophies as Crosby, and presumeably Malkin
Not that big a rave to be honest. Mostly a bunch of writers and journalists that a concerned with it. I see no issue with adding a third pronoun to our language, I'm sure it'll be of much use to the concerned parties in several ways.
Ravelli does deserve honorable mention though. Just for being so .. Swedish.
In all seriousnes we should include Zlatan in the great players department and there's a few others that are pretty good also. They just doesn't seem to gel on the national team.
Ah, Ravelli! Childhood hero for trolling Romania in WC '94.
Very true so how come Sweden doesn't produce many great soccer players? Denmark for example has half the population of Sweden and is light years ahead of them.
Whomever is in charge for Swedish hockey should be hired by Swedish soccer.
Light years??? Our national teams are pretty much equal and we have one of the best strikers inthe worldin Zlatan. And yes, hes better than laudrup
I don't know why you took it the wrong way. I meant that in Sweden, the vast majority of development is into hockey and soccer. American Football, Basketball, Rugby, Cricket, Baseball and other team sports are not as big in Sweden. As far as I know, its soccer and hockey. Meanwhile in Canada, you have hockey, football, baseball, basketball, and soccer. All of which have at least one Canadian team at the highest level, and domestic development leagues within. I can't say that there are any Swedes in the MLB, NFL/CFL, or NBA, while there are Canadians. That's all I meant.
Right on. 
