I would probably put William Karlsson as the 4th centre and and also remove Hörnqvist. Then replace the 2 free winger spots with either Backlund, Nyquist of Olofsson (who had a very good season and is an ok goal scorer and acceptable in the PP)

Dahlin plays a sheltered 3rd pairing role in Buffalo, there's no way he gets an expanded role in a higher level of competition. Klefbom and OEL would be my choices to play 2LD and 3LD.

You chose....poorly

You would have Klefbom and OEL over Brodin too?

I think so, yes.

I chose the better players today.

Brodin is the best defensive defenseman in the league, OEL has declined a lot in the past year. And Klefbom feeds off of Mcdavid and Draisaitl being insane on the pp. Hes pretty average everywhere else.

You can never have too much defense

He plays top pairing minutes on one of the worst teams in the league and dominates...

Also Olofsson wouldn't be cut, was a rookie on pace for 30 goals. Definitely would make the team over a guy like Joel Ek

Dahlin gets the most shelter from top-6 forwards of any Sabres defensemen. Also he rarely starts in the defensive zone against any level of competition. He gets O-zone, OTF and PP minutes - the easiest kind the coaching staff can find. He's not a top-4 in the NHL and shouldn't be counted on to play top-4 in an even higher level tournament.

Argue all you guys want over positions this team looks stacked and I think is the sleeper for the gold in 2022.
When did Sweeden start pumping out Such high caliber NHL talent?

Zibanejad is from Norway

@littlejerryseinfeld @chloewoj @Shibbal18 @gretzkyghost

I tagged you folks so you could get a free laugh at the above comment.

are we thinking of the same dahlin??

You could have made a intelligent point, but instead decided to be hyperbolic and dramatic. You're over exaggerating and also forgetting he just turned 20. He most certainly is a top 4 D man in the NHL, and when you cut the pool to only Swedes, he is definitely on that roster, he currently takes OEL's spot with ease

No. The only Norwegian player in the NHL is Zuccarello

Zibanejad was raised in Huddinge, Sweden. Zibanejad's father, Mehrdad, is from Iran. Mehrdad, a Christian, left Iran in 1983 due to religious persecution following two years of mandatory military service. His mother, Ritva, is from Paltamo, Finland. Internationally, Zibanejad has represented Sweden at both the under-18 and junior levels. On 5 January 2012, Zibanejad scored the gold medal-winning golden goal for Sweden in the 2012 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships against Russia in the tournament final; the game finished 1–0. On 20 May 2018, Zibanejad scored a goal in the final for Sweden to help them win the 2018 IIHF World Championship.

There are 2 ways to easily tell what pairing a player is on: (1) 5v5 TOI per game and (2) quality of competition.

1. Dahlin averaged of 15:03 of 5v5 TOI per game, good for 5th among Sabres regulars.

http://naturalstattrick.com/playerteams.php?fromseason=20192020&thruseason=20192020&stype=2&sit=5v5&score=all&stdoi=oi&rate=y&team=BUF&pos=D&loc=B&toi=0&gpfilt=none&fd=&td=&tgp=410&lines=single&draftteam=ALL

2. Dahlin spent the least percentage of his 5v5 icetime against Elite opponents of all Sabres defensemen. This also indicates sheltering by the coaching staff.

http://puckiq.com/woodmoney?season=20192020&tier=Elite&positions=d&team=buf&group_by=player_season_team

Colin Miller also ranks as 3rd pairing by these metrics, and Dahlin spent the majority of his 5v5 TOI with Miller.

http://naturalstattrick.com/playerreport.php?fromseason=20192020&thruseason=20192020&stype=2&sit=5v5&stdoi=oi&rate=y&v=t&playerid=8480839

He did play some time with Montour and Ristolainen, but the coaches were careful to only put him out with them when the puck was in the neutral or offensive zones already, as you can see in the link above, which speaks to sheltering.

He played 3rd pairing this season, unquestionably.

He was still averaging 22 minutes a game by the end of the year and over 19 minutes on average for the year. He was supplanted by the defensive defenseman in McCabe for defensive situations. McCabe and Jokiharju didnt get any PP time, and Montour had very little so naturally their TOI 5v5 is going to be much higher. Utilization isnt sheltering.

Dahlin's TOI vs Elites actually dropped in the 2nd half. He's being very carefully sheltered by the coaching staff. That's a good thing, don't get me wrong, but it does indicate that Buffalo's coaches don't think he's ready to face the best. No shame in it, he was 19 all season.

He isn't going to make top-4 on the national team when he doesn't even play that role in the NHL.

I agree that he would be "bottom pair" for Sweden, as I said currently I think he easily steps in over OEL if were not going off of nostalgia. But i wouldnt say that his role is not so easily defined as not top 4 in Buffalo, because they still trust him enough in offensive situations and his Corsi is one of the best on the team. Jokiharju is sheltered, theirs a visible difference between the 2