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NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger has been covering the NHL regularly since 1999. Each Monday he will use his extensive network of hockey contacts for his weekly notes column, “Zizing ‘Em Up.”

TAMPA — With all the hype swirling around Canada and the United States heading into the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off from Feb. 12-20, is Sweden, led by Victor Hedman, being overlooked, let alone disrespected?

If that’s the case, they shouldn’t be.

So says Sweden coach Sam Hallam, who recently completed a scouting tour in North America in a search for candidates to fill out the Tre Kroner roster.

“I think the whole field is open,” Hallam told NHL.com from Sweden. “Every team is bringing in high-quality players. Every team has a 25 percent chance. You play each team once. It’s not a playoff series.

“You look at Finland. They come in with a fabulous top end led by Aleksander Barkov. Everyone has top-end players, including us, who can dominate a game any night.

“I don’t think any team is intimidated, including us. We are coming into this thing with the goal of winning it. Nothing less.”

The 4 Nations Face-Off will be the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016. Each team will play one another once in a round robin, with the top two then playing a one-game final at TD Garden in Boston on Feb. 20.

Sweden named its first six players in the spring: defensemen Hedman (Tampa Bay Lightning), Erik Karlsson (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Gustav Forsling (Florida Panthers), and forwards William Nylander (Toronto Maple Leafs), Filip Forsberg (Nashville Predators) and Mika Zibanejad (New York Rangers). The players filling out the remainder of the roster spots will be named in early December.

Who are the leading candidates?

In a wide-ranging chat this past week, Hallam discussed how a player like Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson has put himself on the radar, what Sweden’s goaltending could look like, and how the gold medal-winning team from the 2006 Turin Olympics continues to be an inspiration for modern-day Swedish players.

First off, who have you seen in your recent scouting trip that caught your eye as potential members of the team?

“Andersson (10 points; four goals, six assists in eight games), I mean, as a right-handed D-man, he’s been good for many years now. He’s going to get his points too. He’s maybe a bit different mentality-wise than a lot of other Swedes, a bit more intimidating in a good positive way. Then there’s (New Jersey Devils goalie) Jacob Markstrom (3-3-1, 3.15 goals-against average, .891 save percentage). He felt really comfortable when I met with him before the season. He feels like he’s in a good place both on and off the ice. Young Leo Carlsson (five points; three goals, two assists in seven games for the Anaheim Ducks), he’s shown he can dictate play by the way he skates through the neutral zone.”

With a core of Hedman, Karlsson and Forsling, the blue line would appear to be the backbone of your team. Would you agree?

“I think our defense is a very strong position on our team. We have a lot of good names to pick from. It’s about us trying to be as prepared as possible, how we pair them, how we use them, who we want to play them with.”

How do you foresee the depth of your team?

“Canada and the U.S., they have more depth. They can choose from more players, but I think we’re pretty even when we pick our first 20 guys there. It all depends how you use them and how prepared you are.”

Unlike the Stanley Cup Playoffs, this tournament comes down to one game versus each opponent, much like you find in the knockout round at a IIHF World Championship or IIHF U-20 World Junior competition. What kind of mindset do you have to have in this format?

“System-wise, we try to build something that maximizes our opportunity to win. Normally, in a league environment, you are building a group over a full season. You are building on things that you know are going to pay dividends over time coming into the playoffs. This is different. This is about what we can do over 60 minutes. This is about optimizing the game setup without the scouting info you have if you’d played the opponent before, or about the knowledge about yourself and your team that gets built up over a regular season. So in this case, it comes down to having a Game 7 mentality and being brave enough to make the smart decisions at the right time.”

Before being named coach of the Swedish national team in 2022, you coached the Vaxjo Lakers to three championships in the Swedish Elite League (2015, 2018, 2021). How would you describe yourself as a coach?

“It’s always hard to look back at yourself. I would say I’m a very focused person. Maybe a bit boring. I like to be well prepared and stay focused, and that’s why sometimes I can seem to be pretty calm. Maybe that’s just a case of being pretty focused. I’m always thinking of how we can improve, even during a game, and if someone else comes up with a good idea to help us win, I’m glad to take that and support that idea.”

Who was your hockey idol growing up?

“I was a couple of years younger than Peter Forsberg, so I followed him all the way from when he came up to the Swedish League and then through the NHL, so I would say Peter Forsberg was the one I followed and admired.”

Finally, Forsberg was on the 2006 gold medal-winning team at the Turin Olympics that still stands as the most memorable Sweden team in modern history. What kind of influence did that team have on you and, in fact, the present-day Swedish players to this day?

“I think most of us are never going to forget that. I can still go through in my mind the winning goal in the gold-medal game against Finland. Forsberg to Mats Sundin to (Nicklas) Lidstrom to put Sweden up 3-2. Then Henrik Lundqvist making some fantastic saves to keep it that way. That’s how it ended. Interestingly, when the Olympics go to Milan in 2026, it will be the 20th anniversary of that great moment.”

4 NATIONS STOCK MARKET

Each Monday, we’ll look at two candidates vying to make one of the teams (United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland) participating in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, one who’s hot, one who’s not.

Who’s hot: Rasmus Andersson, Sweden

The native of Malmo, Sweden, had his best offensive season in 2021-22 with 50 points (four goals, 46 assists). Now, the 28-year-old appears ready to eclipse that mark after starting the season at better than a point-per-game pace. It’s unlikely he’ll keep that production up, but it certainly stands as a potential breakout season for the Flames defenseman. Little wonder he’s grabbed Hallam’s attention.

Who’s not: Robert Thomas, Canada

Canada is deep at the forward position, so Thomas, when healthy, might have been an outside shot to make the team. At the same time, the St. Louis Blues forward has been ascending recently and had an NHL career-high 86 points (26 goals, 60 assists) last season. Don’t forget that Blues general manager Doug Armstrong is Canada GM for the 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics and, as such, is quite familiar of what the 25-year-old Aurora, Ontario, native brings to the table. Unfortunately, Thomas was placed on injured reserve with a fractured ankle and will be reevaluated in six weeks, which likely will take him off the list of candidates.

STAR POWER

As coaches and management of the four teams whittle down their lists of candidates with each passing week, they are eliciting the opinions of the star players already named to their respective teams as part of the process.

To that end, Canada assistant GM Jim Nill (Dallas Stars) said the team brass has been in communication with forwards Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers for their thoughts.

“There’s been a lot of dialogue with the six guys who have already been selected to the team, including Brayden Point, Brad Marchand, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar,” Nill said. “(Canada coach) Jon Cooper and his staff have been in touch with them too.

“Those six guys are the foundation of our team, and so there’s definitely input there. The coaches have really been the ones who have started picking their brains. The discussions include things like systems, the power play and stuff.

“When all is said and done, it would be crazy not to dig into the opinions of those players.”

Hallam agrees, having done exactly that with Hedman last week when he watched the Lightning lose 5-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Oct. 21.

“It’s important to get players’ input on systems, their views on potential teammates, things like that,” he said. “With no training camp, you want to see who players feel comfortable with in a short period of time.

“It’s all about developing chemistry quickly, and players know that and have insights in that.”

UNITED STATES UPDATE

United States coach Mike Sullivan (Penguins) held a conference call last week with assistants John Hynes (Nashville Predators) and John Tortorella (Philadelphia Flyers). The third assistant, David Quinn, works under Sullivan in Pittsburgh.

“‘Sully’ has done a great job of organizing us,” Hynes said, adding that “the calls have been a little bit more frequent.

“I think you’re honing in on certain guys, whether it’s the management group looking at players or us kind of just following up with some video on guys.”

Hynes said the frenzy of scouting candidates will subside once the roster additions are announced in early December.

“It’ll probably be a little bit of a lull,” he said. “And then I think it will be ramped up (as the tournament approaches).”

BINNINGTON BOOSTER

Canada’s goaltending situation certainly has been a hot topic north of the border. Gone are the days when it was a position of strength with the likes of Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur, Curtis Joseph, Roberto Luongo and Carey Price.

Maybe so. At the same time, given the situation, Blues coach Craig Bannister, for one, thinks St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington should be a no-brainer.

“I just think he’s on the radar,” Bannister said. “How could he not be? Look what he’s done last year for this hockey team.

“I know ‘Binner.’ I’ve coached Binner since junior. I coached him in Owen Sound (Ontario Hockey League). I coached him in San Antonio (American Hockey League). Now I have the pleasure to coach him now.

“The one thing I know about Binner, he’s a competitor.”

Binnington, 31, was 28-21-5 with a 2.84 GAA and .913 save percentage last season, and is 2-4 with a 2.86 GAA and .903 save percentage this season. He was 6-2 with a 2.81 GAA and .885 save percentage for Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Championship.

QUOTE/UNQUOTE

“The trainer said I’m closing in on my brother (in goals). Well, I’m ahead of him this season.”

— Lightning rookie Conor Geekie after scoring his first goal in his eighth NHL game, a 3-0 victory against the Washington Capitals on Saturday. The 20-year-old now leads older brother Morgan, a 26-year-old forward with the Bruins, in goals this season, 1-0. For the record, Morgan has 39 goals in 264 NHL games.

THE LAST WORD

The sight of Aleksander Barkov returning to practice Saturday was big news back in his native Finland.

And rightly so.

The Florida Panthers captain has missed eight consecutive games with a lower-body injury, understandably igniting some fear in his native country that he might miss the 2024 NHL Global Series Finland presented by Fastenal between the Panthers and Stars in Tampere on Friday and Saturday.

Make no mistake. It’s a huge deal for Finnish players to have the chance to play regular-season NHL games in front of friends and family, not to mention the fans there.

That was on display firsthand when the Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche played a pair of games in Tampere two years ago.

During a 6-3 Avalanche win at the 2022 Global Series, the capacity crowd of 12,882 at Nokia Arena began singing the name of Mikko Rantanen late in the game after he had a hat trick and an assist. For Rantanen, the normally stoic Avalanche forward who grew up 120 miles southwest of Tampere in Nousiainen, the experience of being serenaded in his native land caused him to well up.

“I was surprised. Gave me a few chills,” Rantanen told NHL.com after the game.

Barkov, like Rantanen, normally keeps his emotions close to the vest, but this is different. This is home for the 29-year-old. He’s from Tampere. For him to be sidelined for the games there would have been heartbreaking for both him and the fans who were thirsting to see him play.

Now he appears to be trending toward being able to suit up there. And if he does, it would be yet another special moment for him in 2024 after he helped the Panthers win the Stanley Cup in June.

Here’s hoping it works out that way next weekend.