LOS ANGELES — When Sweden claimed its first World Junior Championship in more than a decade Monday at Grand Casino Arena, Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin was half the country away, battling the Los Angeles Kings in an ultimately losing effort.

But the sight of his countrymen parading around his home office wearing shiny new gold medals conjured up some good memories for Brodin. The last time the Swedes won the title, in 2012, Brodin was 18, wearing the distinctive three crowns on his jersey and skating for the home country.

That year, in Calgary, current New York Rangers standout Mika Zibanejad scored the only goal in the finale, a 1-0 win over Russia.

Before coming to Minnesota this year, the World Juniors title had been won by either Canada or the United States for the previous six tournaments. So, bringing the title home to Sweden is a big deal for the hockey community there.

“It’s fantastic. I heard after the first period that they won and it’s incredible,” Brodin said in the postgame locker room in Los Angeles late Monday night. “They had a great team, and I’m so, so happy for them and for Sweden.”

Brodin and the Wild’s four other Swedish players — forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Johansson, and goalies Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt — attended Sweden’s first game of the 2026 tournament on Dec. 26, and watched from a suite at Grand Casino Arena as Team Sweden began its undefeated run through the World Juniors with a 3-2 victory over Slovakia.

“You know, Brodes was the last generation to win it 2012 and we always have so many skilled junior guys coming up,” Gustavsson said on Monday. “And we’ve been close a few times with silver medals, and it just shows we are on the right track and very happy for the guys.”

Anton Frondell, the Swedish World Juniors star who was named to the all-tournament team on Monday, was the third-overall pick in last summer’s NHL draft by the Chicago Blackhawks and is projected as one of the nation’s stars in waiting.

Another Wild Olympian

Along with the Wild players who will represent the United States, Sweden and Germany next month at the Winter Olympics, Team Czechia will have a Minnesota prospect as well. On Tuesday, the Czech hockey organization named defenseman David Spacek to its roster for next month’s games in Italy.

Spacek, 22, was born in Ohio while his Czech father, Jaroslav, played for the Columbus Blue Jackets and has dual citizenship. He was a fifth round pick by the Wild in the 2022 NHL draft and has been called up to Minnesota on a few occasions but has yet to make his big league debut.

Skating with the Iowa Wild this season, Spacek has two goals and 14 assists in 32 games.

Minnesota will have three players on Team USA (Brock Faber, Matt Boldy and Quinn Hughes), four players on Team Sweden (Gustavsson, Wallstedt, Eriksson Ek and Brodin), and Nico Sturm will skate for Team Germany.

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