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Maple Leafs’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson making strong bid for Sweden’s Olympic team
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Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Michael Coyle
Dec 10, 2025, 08:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 9, 2025, 09:32 EST
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Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson is turning back the clock this season with his offensive numbers, while still providing his steady defensive play. It should give Team Sweden’s Olympic head coach Sam Hallam something to think about before the team’s roster is due on December 31. 
Ekman-Larsson is off to one of the most impressive starts in his 16-year career. He ranks 20th league-wide in points among defencemen,  while also being tied for the lead in points amongst all Swedish defencemen with 20. Ekman-Larsson was left off the Four Nations Face-Off roster, where teams were capped at 23 players, which may be providing some extra motivation through the opening two months. 
Sweden’s Four Nations defencemen were captain Victor Hedman, Rasmus Andersson, Jonas Brodin, Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Ekholm, Gustav Forsling and Erik Karlsson. Hedman and Dahlin were already named to the team in June, when Sweden announced its six players on their preliminary roster. The rest of the incumbents from Sweden’s Four Nations defence core all appear to have positioned themselves to get the return call to the team with how they have started off their own 2025-26 seasons.  
Andersson currently is tied with Ekman-Larsson for the lead amongst Swedish defenceman in points. He’s formed a strong pairing with Kevin Bahl, with a plus-six goal differential via Natural Stat Trick on a Flames team that sports a -16 goal differential in all situations. Andersson-Bahl are the fourth-most used pairing in the NHL at 5-on-5, and have been one of the lone bright spots for a struggling Flames team. Andersson was also the captain of Sweden at the World Championships. 
Brodin has nine points in 28 games, playing alongside Brock Faber on the Wild’s top pairing, the third-most used pairing in the league when on together at 5-on-5 via Natural Stat Trick. And looking at Brodin’s individual metrics, there’s an argument to be made that he’s carrying Faber: Brodin sports an individual plus-five rating at 5-on-5, and the Wild control 52.1 percent of the expected goals when he was on the ice. 
Ekholm has started to turn his season around, getting his plus-minus back to even, posting 13 points in 28 games. He’s part of the eighth most-used pairing playing alongside Evan Bouchard while on at 5-on-5, controlling 52 percent of the expected goals. 
Forsling has played a major role on back-to-back championship-winning Florida Panthers teams and is off to another strong start, playing on the team’s top pairing, posting 14 points in 28 games while being a plus-three on a team that has a negative two goal differential. 
Karlsson currently has the most points among active Swedish defencemen with 888 and posted 18 points in 27 games, while recording a plus-six, silencing some of the critics about his defensive play.
Barring any injuries, Ekman-Larsson won’t be replacing any of these seven players, but with the extra defenseman being carried, he has put himself at the top of the list for his second Olympics selection. 
During the 2014 Winter Olympics, Ekman-Larsson appeared in six games, posting three assists and a plus-four, playing a key role as a then 22-year-old, on the silver medal team that fell to Canada 3-0 in the gold medal game.  Ekman-Larsson will need to win out against the Boston Bruins’ Hampus Lindholm, Seattle Kraken’s Adam Larsson and Detroit Red Wings’ Simon Edvinsson, all of whom he has posted better numbers to this point in the 2025-26 season. 
Ekman-Larsson has more experience than all of these three previously listed and is the only Stanley Cup winner and previous Olympian.  The knock-on Ekman-Larsson was his defensive ability, but over his past two seasons, he has posted a cumulative plus-24 rating, better than Lindholm and Edvinsson and trailing Larsson, who is a plus-28. 
The experience of already having played at an Olympics is not lost when selecting a team, and Ekman-Larsson isn’t fazed by the moment. He has played in Game 7 of a Stanley Cup Final, which his team won and been in an Olympic gold medal game, so if Hallam is looking for a player to round out the defence group, Ekman-Larsson surely ought to be the first player that comes to mind. 
All stats current prior to Monday’s games 
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