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Pittsburgh Penguins' Patric Hornqvist kicks down the door when opportunity knocks

Pittsburgh Penguins

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Eleven years ago, the draft was not the media spectacle it is today, not only because there was no Twitter. Back in 2005, the NHL was recovering from the lockout that had swept out the entire previous season -- and the original draft date along with it.

Only the top 20 prospects had been invited to the Westin Hotel in Ottawa, and it was already the next day in Sollentuna, Sweden -- home of Mats Sundin -- when Patric Hornqvist woke up to his father telling him that he had been drafted by the Nashville Predators.

Hornqvist had played that season in Vasby, two suburbs over from Sollentuna and two divisions removed from the top-tier Swedish league.

"I woke right up and jolted out of my bed," he recently told ESPN.com in Swedish.

The fact that he had been the last player drafted in the entire draft -- 230th overall -- didn't make him any less excited about his career possibilities.

"At least I had a real chance to make it to the NHL," he said. "It gave me some new hope. Somebody in the Predators organization believed in me.

"Whether the chance to make it to the NHL is big or small is up to each player. I just decided to make the best of my chance."

The door was ajar, and Hornqvist kicked it wide open.

From his draft class, only five players have scored more goals than Hornqvist's 153. One of them is his relatively new linemate, Sidney Crosby, and another is the player the Pens traded away two years ago in return for Hornqvist and Nick Spaling: James Neal.

"That, too, happened in the middle of the night," Hornqvist said of the trade. "My phone rang, and when I saw it was an unknown U.S. number, I realized it had been the draft weekend, and I knew something was up. It was David Poile, the Predators GM, who thanked me for my service and told me to wait for the Penguins GM to call right after.

"I could hardly speak. I was shocked and only half-awake. It's a strange feeling to get traded, but I quickly understood that I had been traded to a great team."

While the Penguins saved $800,000 under their salary cap with Neal's contract going the other way, it was mostly a good hockey trade.

"We like Hornqvist a lot," GM Jim Rutherford said at the time. "We think he's a complete player, an all-around player, a player that plays with an edge. He'll be good in the playoffs."

That he was. Last spring, Hornqvist scored nine goals in 24 playoff games, second on the Pens only to Phil Kessel (10). One of those was the Pens' last goal, the Cup-clinching empty-netter with 62 seconds remaining in Game 6 against the San Jose Sharks.

"I just remember waiting for the buzzer to go off," he said. "We got a penalty with 10 seconds remaining, but we knew we had the game in the bag, and the feeling of relief and pure happiness was so awesome."

These days, Hornqvist's red steel wool playoff beard is gone, and after his day with the Cup, he's looking forward to the World Cup of Hockey, which kicks off Sept. 17 in Toronto.

"It's a special feeling to come to a national team meeting because we're not that close friends, but we sort of know each other," he said of his Sweden teammates.

This time around, Sweden has a new coach in Rikard Gronborg, former assistant in the national team, and Hornqvist is going to be one of his most important offensive weapons.

Last season, he was fourth in goal scoring by Swedish NHLers, behind Loui Eriksson of the Boston Bruins, Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks and Filip Forsberg of the Predators. Since his first full season with the Predators, only two Swedes -- Sedin and Eriksson -- have scored more goals than Hornqvist, and since 2013, only Gustav Nyquist, who isn't on Sweden's World Cup roster, has scored more.

"It's going to be a great tournament, with all nations icing their best teams," said Hornqvist, 29. "Also, compared to the Olympics, we now have a proper training camp -- two-and-a-half weeks instead of two days -- so we can really work on our game. Our new coach has a bit of a North American touch, which is what we're used to now [as NHLers].

"Just full steam ahead."

Why not? It has worked for him in the past.

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