That is a bit strange since Olausson must have been a much better player. He was certainly good enough to be in the Canada Cup/World Cup team 1987, 1991 and 1996. Probably in the Olympics 1998 since Sweden didn't have a good right-shooting D-man back then.
1991 Canada Cup had Calle Johansson, Nicklas Lidström, Tommy Albelin, Kjell and Ulf Samuelsson, Börje Salming and Peter Andersson. I didn't watch this tournament (as I was 9–10 years old and it took place overseas in a different time zone) but looking at the names I have to (kinda) assume that Peter Andersson was brought there as a 7th D because at the time he played with Björklöven in the Swedish II Division (although he had previously played 172 NHL games with the Capitals and the Nordiques). Strictly looking at games played though (without any context) Ulf Samuelsson was the odd man out (only playing 3 out of 6 games). It could have been that Andersson was still a highly thought of player despite playing at home in the II Divison.
1987 Canada Cup had Tomas Jonsson, Michael Thelvén, Albelin, Anders Eldebrink, Peter Andersson, Tommy Samuelsson (none of these Samuelsson players were related to each other) and Lars Karlsson. Olausson was in his sophomore year with the Jets when this tourney took place. Eldebrink, Andersson, Samuelsson and Karlsson all played back home in Sweden at this time.
1996 World Cup had Lidström, Albelin, Calle Johansson, Roger Johansson, Kenny Jönsson, Mattias Norström, Peter Popovic, Leif Rohlin. This one is especially damning for Olausson as there are 8 names there and one of those names is very unremarkable Leif Rohlin. Extra Ds on this team were K. Jönsson and Rohlin, both played 1 game each instead of R. Johansson and Popovic. R. Johansson played back home in Sweden at this point.
1998 Olympics had Lidström, C. Johansson, Albelin, Norström, Öhlund, Ragnarsson and Ulf Samuelsson (Ulf's American citizens can't represent Sweden cry me a river moment).
As you can see Albelin is consistently there, so he was always considered a more useful player than Olausson. As were other players, apparently. I don't think the Swedish national team had a philosophy where they brought with them game situation specialist (like a PP specialist, or a PK specialist, or a face-off specialist, or a pest, or a right-handed shot PP specialist, or whatever). I think if you were picked you were supposed to either play as a regular or not play at all. Crease specialist Tomas Holmström weren't originally picked for the 2006 team, for instance, but came on as a reserve (for Markus Näslund, who was a very different type of player).
I guess my conclusion is that Olausson weren't a very highly thought of player, in the grand scheme of things.
