Flyers goalie Sam Ersson is named to Sweden’s roster for the World Championship

Sam Ersson has been crowned.

On April 17, after cleaning out his locker in Voorhees, the Flyers goalie said, “I would like to play,” when asked if he would head to the 2024 IIHF World Championship. On Wednesday, it became official as Ersson was named to Sweden’s roster for the tournament.

The native of Falun is coming off an impressive rookie season when he battled through adversity and came out of it as the Flyers’ No. 1 goalie. He went 23-19-7 with a 2.82 goals-against average, an .890 save percentage and four shutouts as he carried the load in 51 games.

He is one of three goalies on the roster for Tre Kronor, joining Minnesota Wild goalies Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson. Notable names on the roster include defensemen Erik Karlsson, Rasmus Dahlin and Victor Hedman, and forwards Adrian Kempe, Lucas Raymond, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Andre Burakovsky.

Ersson has worn the three crowns before. He was the third-string goalie for the U18 team in 2017, played on the U19 team the following year, and jumped into the spotlight at the 2019 World Junior Championship. He got to start the first game after Olle Eriksson Ek was suspended for removing his silver medal the year before — and took the No. 1 spot. Ersson went 3-1 with a 2.23 GAA and a .922 save percentage for the fifth-place squad.

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“I would say it’s a very special moment,” Ersson told The Inquirer in December. “For me, that was one of the goals I had set on, kind of like a dream and something that I wanted to be a part of from a very young age. Very special tournament.”

The World Championship will be played from Friday to May 26, in Ostrava and Prague, Czechia. Sweden is in Group B with the United States. The roster includes Flyers forward Joel Farabee, Salem County native Johnny Gaudreau, and two former Flyers in forward Kevin Hayes and goalie Alex Lyon. The two teams will meet in the tournament opener on Friday at 2:20 p.m. on NHL Network.

Former Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom has signed with his hometown team, Brynäs IF of the Swedish Hockey League.

Lindblom played for the Swedish club for three seasons after being selected by the Flyers in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL draft. Before signing his three-year entry-level contract in 2017, Lindblom was named Swedish forward of the year in 2016-17 when he finished second in the SHL in goals (22) and fourth in points (47).

The forward began his career in North America with Lehigh Valley and made his NHL debut in February 2018 for the Flyers. He played the last two seasons with the San Jose Sharks organization, spending almost all of 2023-24 with the Barracudas of the American Hockey League.

Lindblom, 27, spent five seasons with the Flyers, collecting 97 points (50 goals, 47 assists) in 263 games. In December 2019, leading the Flyers in goals with 11, the Gavle, Sweden, native was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He was 23 at the time of the diagnosis and this type of cancer is more common in children and teenagers.

The Flyers forward underwent chemotherapy and surgery while under the care of doctors at Pennsylvania Hospital and returned to the ice nine months later during the 2020 bubble. He played 17 minutes, 30 seconds in the Flyers’ 5-4 double-overtime win against the New York Islanders in Game 6 of the second round on Sept. 3.

In the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season, he collected 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in 50 games and was awarded the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for best exemplifying the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey by the members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. The following year, he notched 26 points in 79 games, but then-general manager Chuck Fletcher bought out his contract during the offseason.