Detroit Red Wings
Red Wings Raymond Ready For 4 Nations Face-Off Challenge
Swedish star leads Detroit in scoring
Some may view the break in the NHL season for the 4 Nations Face-Off as nothing more than a money grab, but don’t count Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond among that group.
The Swedish star will be wearing his country’s colors in the mist of the NHL’s first best on best tournament in nearly a decade. To him, that’s kind of a big deal.
“I think anytime you put on your national team jersey and get to play for your country, it’s always an honor and something that I think a lot of guys take a lot of pride in,” Raymond said. “So it’s always exciting. And then obviously playing with guys you normally don’t.
“A lot of high profile players are going to play important minutes for their teams.”
Team Sweden 🇸🇪 players ranked by points per game this year.
Jesper Bratt – 1.12
Lucas Raymond – 1.07
William Nylander – 1.00
Filip Forsberg – 0.98
Rasmus Dahlin – 0.91
Adrian Kempe – 0.87
Rickard Rakell – 0.86
Victor Hedman – 0.83
Elias Pettersson – 0.69
Erik Karlsson – 0.67…— NHL Rosters (@NHL_Rosters) February 10, 2025
Guys like Raymond. He might not get the press clippings beyond Detroit that some other Swedish stars such as Elias Pettersson, Erik Karlsson, William Nylander, Victor Hedman and Filip Forsberg draw.
With 21-38-59 totals, he’s leading the Red Wings in scoring, just as Raymond did last season. Around these parts, people recognize the high-end qualities that ooze from Raymond’s game.
“From being out west you understand this young man is a pretty good player,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “Just automatically from where you go in the draft (fourth overall in 2020) that’s an assumption. But then you watch him and play and you open up the stat book and see where he stands, but you don’t really pay a lot of attention to him unless you’re pre-scouting him.
“Now that I’ve been here, everything is just reaffirmed and you find out even more. The character, the drive that he plays with. His practice habits are really good, so he’s getting better every day. He’s not giving anything back. It’s been impressive.”
Red Wings Raymond Ready To Lead Sweden
In practice leading up to Wednesday’s tournament opener against Canada, Raymond is skating on Sweden’s third line with Jesper Bratt of the New Jersey Devils and Joel Eriksson Ek of the Minnesota Wild. He’s also working with Sweden’s No. 1 power-play unit.
How to watch Dylan Larkin & Lucas Raymond at #4Nations this week ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/bWB2Gksgbl
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) February 11, 2025
While many of his teammates are off somewhere tropical, thinking about anything but hockey, he’s looking to use this tournament as a springboard toward driving the Red Wings into the NHL playoffs for the first time since 2016 – oddly enough, the previous year that there was an NHL best on best tournament, the World Cup of Hockey.
“You can look at it different ways,” Raymond said. “I think it all depends on kind of what mindset you’re going with it.
“I think it’s going to be an energy boost playing those type of games in those type of environments. And yeah, no rust to dust off when we get back.”
