Team Sweden gets rocked by two major injuries

Team Sweden officials have confirmed that forward Leo Carlsson and defenseman Jonas Brodin are both unlikely to play for the country at the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics.

"We'll give it a few more days to see if anything extraordinary happens, but currently we are operating under the assumption they won't be playing in the Olympics," head coach Sam Hallam said.

Brodin has been out of the lineup for over a week now and is officially out week-to-week according to the Minnesota Wild. The 32 year old has never played in the Olympics, but he did represent Sweden in the NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off last season.

The 21 year old Carlsson is expected to be out for over a month after undergoing a lower body surgery earlier today the Anaheim Ducks announced.

"Both of them are amazing players and amazing people and it looks like they won't get a chance to play," Hallam said. "I feel their pain. We'll see what our next steps are with regards to our team and our roster. We remain confident in the depth available to us."

In terms of replacements, you have to imagine that Sweden is looking at Edmonton Oilers defnseman Mattias Ekholm and Calgary Flames forward Mikael Backlund. A couple other interesting options could be St. Louis Blues defenseman Philip Broberg and Minnesota Wild forward Marcus Johansson.

Stay tuned.