Detroit Red Wings left wing Lucas Raymond has always made it clear that he treasures his time wearing a Swedish National Team jersey.

When Sweden was knocked out the 2026 Olympic competition in Italy, on a heartbreaking 2-1 overtime loss to USA in the quarterfinal, Raymond wrote on Instagram: “Not the result we wanted but an awesome experience and always a honor representing Sweden.”

Raymond showed he meant those words by committing to play for Sweden for the fourth consecutive time at the World Championship tournament. Team Sweden also received a commitment from Edmonton defenseman Mattias Ekholm. He’s playing in his sixth World Championship event.

The tournament will be played from May 15-31 in Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland.

This was probably a tougher decision for Raymond because it comes just three months after his Olympic participation. Plus, he was banged up at the end of the season. It would have been understandable if he had opted for more rest time this summer.

At the end of the regular season, Raymond even said he wasn’t sure whether he would play at the World Championships this time. But after returning to Sweden and resting, he decided to play.

Sweden’s Top Scorer

This is major news for the Swedes because Raymond (two goals, seven assists) was the team’s leading scorer at the Olympics. In his three previous World Championship experiences, he produced 11 goals and 15 assists for 26 points in 28 games. He has helped Sweden win a pair of bronze medals (2024 and 2025).

Raymond, 24, is coming off a 76-point NHL season. However, Red Wings coach Todd McLellan is challenging him to work at becoming a more dominant goal scorer. He had 25 goals this past season. The Red Wings believe Raymond isn’t shooting as much as he could.

“If you just take his shooting percentage and throw in an extra hundred shots, which I think he’s very capable of,” McLellan said, “(then) we have a 40-goal scorer. That’s something we’ll push him towards. He’s a very unselfish guy. Sometimes you have be a little bit selfish and take the shot.”