Leafs, Senators among 4 teams headed to Sweden for games next season

The NHL is sending four teams to Sweden next season, with the Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators taking part in Global Series games there in November.

The league on Wednesday announced its second and final venture outside North America in 2023: a game each day in Stockholm from Nov. 16-19. The Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes are set to play two exhibition games in Melbourne, Australia, in September.

The NHL is trying to significantly expand hockey interest Down Under while also cultivating and growing an already fervent fanbase in Scandinavia and across Europe. David Proper, the league's senior executive VP of media and international strategy, knows they present different dynamics.

"A lot of the people that may go to this for the first time in Australia are going because it's an event — a North American professional sport is playing in Australia — and what we need to do is convince them that this is a sport worth following, that it's fun, it's interesting, it's the kind of sport they can get involved in," Proper said.

The NHL is returning to Sweden for the first time since before the pandemic, when Buffalo and Tampa Bay played games at what is now known as Avicii Arena. The Red Wings will face the Senators on Nov. 16 and the Leafs on Nov. 17, while the Wild will face the Senators on Nov. 18 and the Leafs on Nov. 19.

Minnesota's Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek and Filip Gustavsson and Toronto's William Nylander get the chance to play an NHL game in their home country for the first time. The league chose the Wild, Maple Leafs, Red Wings and Senators not only for their current volume of Swedes but the organizations' history of them, including Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom and Henrik