Team Sweden announced on Monday afternoon that Anaheim Ducks forward Rickard Rakell has been taken off their roster, thanks to a stomach virus, which he has been hospitalized back in Gothenburg for and was unable to join his compatriots for the trip to North America for the tournament.
Rakell appeared in the first warm-up game for Sweden, their 3-2 overtime loss to Finland, where he had an assist in almost 14 minutes of ice-time and could have figured well into their plans. The 23-year old was unable to go in their second game against the Finns, due to the virus and over the weekend, was hospitalized with the illness and the decision was then made to replace him on Monday.
St. Louis forward Patrik Berglund has been named as his replacement and he'll likely get a practice or two in, plus the last warm-up game, just to get a feel, as to whether or not he will play in the tournament itself.
An executive decision was made to make the change on Tony's roster, opting to change Rakell for Berglund on his team, giving him a full compliment of players for when the tournament starts. One would assume that if he wasn't cleared to play, he wouldn't have been taken and this works like the preseason waiver draft in the regular season pool.
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