NHL Draft 2018: 15 first-hand takeaways from a weekend in Dallas

13. It was a good weekend for Sweden

For the past few years, it’s been a common thread for Canadian-born and American-born players to dominate at each NHL Draft. The two countries typically own the most selections of any nation and annually produce some of the top prospects.

But this year, there was another big time player at the draft table. That player was Sweden.

It was a terrific weekend for the Swedes, who saw their very own Rasmus Dahlin go no. 1 overall. Dahlin was the first Swedish-born player to go first in the NHL Draft since 1989 when Mats Sundin was picked by the Quebec Nordiques. So yeah, it’s been a while.

Dahlin was considered the top prospect in the draft class for a long time and is viewed as a potential generational talent. He’s been playing in the top league in Sweden for the past two years and has developed into a player that should make an immediate NHL impact.

But the good times didn’t stop there for Sweden. A total of six Swedes were picked among the 31 selections made in Round 1 (first, eighth, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth). That ties the record for most Swedish-born players taken in the first round and is a feat that has only been achieved three other times.

The country continued its hot streak into day two and walked away with 28 total players drafted from the country. It’s a new record for Swedish-born players taken in an NHL Draft and proved to be the third most of any country, trailing only Canada and the USA. But that’s not a bad place to be at all, considering they beat countries like Russia and Finland in the process.

This impressive draft showing also comes just one month after Sweden won their second consecutive gold medal at the World Championships.

It just goes to show that Sweden continues to develop quality talent and is becoming an origin spot for some of the top players in the NHL. Go Swedes.