Swedish forward William Karlsson's participation in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament came into serious doubt this week after the Golden Knight was sidelined on a week-to-week basis with an injury.

A logical replacement would be the forward who has the third-most goals (23) of any Swede in the NHL this season -- Rickard Rakell. He trails only William Nylander (28) and Adrian Kempe (24) in goals by Swedish players, both of whom made the initial roster.

Rakell said that he hasn't heard from Team Sweden yet regarding potential participation, though he did speak with the Swedish coaching staff when they were scouting games in Pittsburgh two weeks ago. He's still holding out hope that he gets that call. It would be relatively short notice -- the tournament begins Feb. 12 in Montreal -- but he said he'd absolutely still be interested in playing. That doesn't mean he's dwelling on it too much, though.

"Honestly, it was something that was on our mind this summer," Rakell told me after the Penguins' practice in Anaheim on Friday. "But I mean, whatever happens now, happens. I'm past whatever it is. I'm just focused on the Penguins right now."

If Karlsson indeed can't play, another forward who could make sense is the Flames Mikael Backlund. Backlund, with 10 goals and 10 assists in 46 games, doesn't quite come close to matching Rakell's output of 23 goal and 18 assists in 49 games. But he is a center like Karlsson, and could take on a defensive bottom-six kind of role for Sweden.

But, man, it'd be hard to leave off someone producing the way Rakell is. He's even amplified that since he learned he was left off the roster on Dec. 5. In the time since, he has 13 goals and 12 assists in 22 games. That's the sixth-most goals in the league in that frame, and the most of any Swede.

Marcus Pettersson told me after Sweden's roster came out that knowing Rakell, the snub would motivate him even further. Rakell thinks that may be the case, too.

"Right when it happened, my goal was just to try to show them that they did the wrong thing," Rakell said. "And maybe that is something still in the back of my head."

One of those goals Rakell scored post-snub was Jan. 12 against the Lightning, one of the two games for which the Swedish coaching staff was in the building. It was a great goal too, creating space for himself in the slot before picking up an off-target pass from Bryan Rust and quickly putting it past Andrei Vasilevskiy:

I pointed out to Rakell that I remember he scored when the Swedish coaches were in the building, and he broke into a sly-looking grin.

"Oh, yeah," he said. "I know."

Rakell wanted to show those who made the decision to snub him that "they did the wrong thing," and he's sure done all he can to do that. It's just up to Sweden's staff now to right that wrong.