Pre-season round up - Stealing the Swedes version

The Swedish Elitserien continues to be emptied of young talent. Maybe the Swedish Hockey association should have been tougher with the NHL about compensation and not signed the agreement directly. Russia and the Czech Republic both balked at signing the agreement, now it looks as though the Swedes are paying for it by losing good young players to the NHL. It will raise the profile hopefully of the Swedish league, but it might make for a very different season on this side of the Atlantic. Through the loss of major stars like Peter Forsberg and Marcus Naslund, and promising young talent like Henrik Lundqvist, the Elitserien has been completely remade. Teams like Timrå have lost a lot, including Zetterberg, which is bad enough, but they continue to lose good players like Niklas Nordgren who recently signed for Carolina. Still there are plenty of good players out there, and maybe Sweden will get some of its better older players back.