European Hockey

The 2024 NHL Draft was an impressive spectacle inside the Vegas Dome, one that will be hard to match when the NHL reverts back to teams not being centrally located at the same venue.

What really matters is the boundless potential of the players whose names were called out from the podium. Here are my thoughts on some of the European player selections.

Norwegian First Rounders

The biggest European story was forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and defenseman Stian Solberg becoming the first two Norwegians to be drafted in the First Round.

Brandsegg-Nygård was selected 15th overall by the Detroit Red Wings. His impending place in draft history was all-but guaranteed by his performances in the 2023-24 season for Mora in the HockeyAllsvenskan (Swedish second tier) and for his country in both the U20 World Championships and the men’s World Championships. Most prospect rankings had him in the mid-teens and that’s exactly where he went.

Watching him playing for Mora last season, whilst his skating ability and stick-handling were a cut-above his opponents, what really stood out was his fore-checking and defensive work. He wasn’t simply aggressive, he was smart with it too. He was mentally one-step ahead of the opposition, closing off the angle they wanted to take and allowing him to either poke-check or separate the attacking player from the puck. It almost felt like the Jaws music should have been playing in the arena whenever he started circling an opponent!

He has signed a one-year contract with SHL team Skellefteå for the 24-25 season, so we should be able to enjoy watching him develop in Europe for another season before he heads to North America. Hopefully that will also include a chance to watch him in the UK in September when his team travels to Sheffield to take on the Steelers in the Champions Hockey League.

Like London buses, we waited years for a Norwegian First Rounder and we then got two in quick succession.

Stian Solberg was taken eight picks later (23rd overall) by the Anaheim Ducks. He’s spent his hockey career to date in his home country with Vålerenga and will be moving across to Sweden for 24-25 with Färjestad.

Like Brandsegg-Nygård, he impressed mightily at both the J20 and men’s World Championships for Norway over the past six months, especially at the latter with his reputation as a frighteningly physical defensemen only being enhanced by his fearless approach against considerably more experienced players.

The scouting capsule about him on his Elite Prospects profile sums it up perfectly:

What defines Solberg above everything else is his mean streak. He’s not content just repelling opponents. He wants them to be as close as possible, as it’s then easier for him to press his stick in their back. He inflicts pain every chance he gets, immobilizes opponents, and knocks them away from the front of the net.

Swedish Talent

The 2024 Swedish draft pool was considered to be weaker than we’ve seen in recent years. Not only did it lack a major talent, such as 2023’s Second Overall selection Leo Carlsson, there wasn’t any clear First Round talents either.

Twenty-two Swedish youngsters still had the honour of being selected across the Seven Rounds, showing how solid the country’s overall player development system remains.

The group was led by MoDo’s Lucas Pettersson. He was the one player that various draft prospect guides picked as someone who might have snuck into the tail-end of the First Round. The Anaheim Ducks selected him with the third pick in the Second Round, 35th overall.

Pettersson turned 18 in mid-April and had an excellent season in the J20 Nationell league, amassing 57 points across 44 games. He also impressed over his seven appearances for Sweden in the J18 World Championships during their Bronze medal campaign.

He got onto the ice for MoDo in the SHL four times in 23-24, just getting a few shifts here and there, and it will be good to watch him take the next step in his development playing more regularly for MoDo in the 24-25 season.

Here are a few of his fellow drafted Swedes who I got to see a bit more of in the SHL and the HockeyAllsvenskan (HAS) this past season:

Jack Berglund (2nd Round, 51st overall, by Philadelphia Flyers)

Berglund had a fairy-tale start to his SHL career by scoring on his debut for Färjestad against Skellefteå on 28 November. He then had a few appearances over the busy Christmas period before spending the rest of the season at Junior Levels for club and country, save for one SHL appearance against Luleå on 12 March.

Linus Eriksson (2nd Round, 58th overall, by Florida Panthers)

Yet another product off the Djurgården production line, Eriksson split his time between their J20 (25 games) and HAS (29 games, plus 12 play-off games) teams in 2023-24. I primarily watched him during Djurgården’s play-off run, where he stood out in the Semi-Final series against Mora and then held his own in what was a bruising 4-0 loss in the Final series against Brynäs.

Simon Zether (4th Round, 129th overall, by Florida Panthers)

Captain of Rögle’s J20 team, Zether was also part of their SHL team for 42 regular season games and 15 play-off games, scoring a memorable goal in the Quarter-Finals against Växjö Lakers along the way. In a somewhat surprising move, Rögle have decided to loan him to Västerås in the HockeyAllsvenskan ahead of the 24-25 season.

In announcing the news, their Sporting Director Hampus Sjöström explained that, “Simon comes to a good environment and a chance to get a good role in a good team. We believe he will be able to develop very well in Västerås and look forward to following him carefully”. Rögle’s official website worded it as him starting the season with Västerås, which may just be a literal interpretation by the English translation or could suggest that they expect he will be back with them at some point during the season.

Albin Sundin (6th Round, 183rd overall, by Edmonton Oilers)

This late-round selection caught my eye partly as an Oilers fans – and helps to balance out having to refer to two Panthers picks above – and partly because he was someone who I thought really blossomed for Frölunda during the play-offs last season. He had primarily played for their J20 team (41 games) alongside some SHL appearances (18 during the regular season), before featuring in 14 of their play-off games, averaging 14 minutes or so per game.

He’s an older prospect within the class, turning 20 in mid-August, and I’d see him more as someone who will have a good career in Europe than a future NHL player, but he appears to have a well-rounded profile and if he continues taking steps forward in his development then there’s a chance he could get an opportunity down the line.

The top-ranked SHL player

Taken one place ahead of Lucas Pettersson was Malmö’s Czech defensemen Dominik Badinka, who was selected with the 34th overall pick by the Carolina Hurricanes.

Badinka was a popular attraction for scouts at the Malmö Arena and across SHL venues last season, his first in Sweden. It says a lot about his maturity that he was entrusted with so much ice time (averaging over 14 minutes per game) at the SHL level for someone so young. He has both the physical tools you want, standing at 6’3”, as well as the game-reading ability and calmness that you normally only find in more experienced defensemen.

Carolina feels like a good fit for him organisation-wise, although I’d expect him to have at least one more season in the SHL before heading to North America. Building on the 33 games he played in 23-24, playing plenty of minutes as a regular for Malmö, should be very beneficial for his continued development, especially in opening up his offensive potential.

And (some of) the rest

Whilst everyone knew that the San Jose Sharks would select Macklin Celebrini with the first overall pick, there was some uncertainty over which way the Chicago Blackhawks would go with the second pick. They opted to go for the defenseman route, after taking elite forward talent Connor Bedard with the first overall pick last year, and selected Artyom Levshunov. Technically he was selected out of Michigan State University, but he is a product of Belarus so we can include him on the European talent list.

There were two Russians taken in the top ten, including forward Ivan Demidov who was taken fifth overall by the Montréal Canadiens. Draftin Europe consider him to be “the best prospect to come out of Europe in the last 5 years” and if he lives up to that billing then the Habs could have a very special talent on their hands.

The New Jersey Devils selected defenseman Anton Silayev with the 10th overall pick. As with his fellow countrymen, Russia’s international tournament ban has hindered the ability of NHL scouts to get a full read on how his current potential may translate to higher-levels of play, particularly with the puck. That’s not stopped them being able to see how well he skates for someone of 6’7”, though, which is why a year ago he was being touted as a potential top three selection. The public scouting reports have summarised him as a strong bet to be a good NHL defenseman, with the potential to be a star defender if he is able to smooth some rough edges and develop his offensive game.

And finally, centre Konsta Helenius, the top talent out of Finland, was taken with the 14th overall selection by the Buffalo Sabres. His performances in the Finnish Liiga for Jukurit at just 17 years old (he turned 18 on 11 May) were so impressive that he ended the season making history as the youngest player ever to represent Finland at the men’s World Championship. I saw a couple of Jukurit’s games in the play-offs where he shone with six points in six games and he oozed class in everything he did.