When the phone rang, Philip Broberg was quite surprised to hear Tomas Montén‘s voice on the other end of the line. Sure, he knew that he was one of the reserves for the Swedish World Juniors’ team, but he didn’t know if there were other defensemen ahead of him on head coach Montén’s list of reserves, nor had he heard of injuries to any player on the preliminary roster.

But here it was. An injury to Toronto Marlies defenseman Timothy Liljegren gives him a chance to represent his country in one of the biggest tournaments of the year.
“I was on my way to our practice when (Montén) called”, Philip Broberg says. “I was obviously really happy to get the news. It would be a dream come true to play in the World Juniors or at least get the chance to fight for a spot.”

He confesses that he was disap