We noted yesterday that David Edstrom had been traded to the Nashville Predators by the San Jose Sharks as part of the Yaroslav Askarov deal.
The young Swedish centre is under contract with SHL team Frölunda until the end of the 2024-25 season and was formally loaned to them by San Jose last season. It has been expected that this would continue through the coming season and Edstrom has been playing in their pre-season training games, including on Friday and Saturday.
The trade immediately created some doubt as to whether that agreement will be honoured. A short update by ProHockeyRumors on Saturday added fuel to that fire by claiming that Nashville’s General Manager, Barry Trotz, had indicated that Edstrom would be heading to AHL Milwaukee:
New Predators prospect David Edstrom spent last season on loan to SHL Frolunda after signing his entry-level deal with Vegas. However, it doesn’t appear as if that will be the case this time around. In an interview with 102.5 The Game (audio link), Nashville GM Barry Trotz indicated that he envisions his new center playing big minutes with AHL Milwaukee. Since Edstrom wasn’t drafted out of the CHL, he is AHL-eligible despite being just 19. He played in 44 games in Sweden last season, picking up 19 points and should be counted on to produce a bit more than that in his first taste of action in North America.
Nashville technically do have the right to claim Edstrom, but teams rarely do that without discussing it with the prospect. It is often the case that young European players are more inclined to stay an extra year where they are comfortable rather than making an early switch to North America.
We saw a prime example of that this off-season when Axel Sandin-Pellikka decided to stay with Skellefteå for the 2024-25 season rather than move to the Detroit Red Wings’ AHL team. It was clear that this was Axel’s call, but one that Detroit were happy to agree to knowing that his development would be well taken care of by a high-quality professional team.
The same can be said about Frölunda, who have a strong track record of developing NHL talent.
Where that leaves Edstrom
This is what GM Barry Trotz said when asked by the host where Edstrom fitted in to Nashville’s prospect group.
I think, especially at the center position – I obviously would like to get him here, he’s a year younger – but I would put him and [Fedor] Svechkov, [they] are both really good prospects. They’re going to play in the National Hockey League. They’ve got some size. They’ve got some skill. I feel really, really strongly, that they’re both going to be players that are going to play big minutes for us, and important minutes for us, in the future.
I think we’re building a centre-ice that has some, I’ll say, some depth to it. It started to obviously with this trade today getting Edstrom. I got an opportunity to see him last year, at the Four Nations in Detroit last year, and he was really impressive. And he’ll be one of the leaders for the junior team in Sweden this year. So we feel real strongly that we improved our centre-ice, but we had to do it with giving up a really good prospect in Askarov.
As quoted above, Trotz says he would “like to get him [Edstrom] here” and that he anticipates that he (and Svechkov) will “play big minutes for us”, however that’s not with reference to Milwaukee and the AHL.
It’s also worth noting that Trotz mistakenly says that Edstrom is “a year younger” than Svechkov when he’s actually two years younger. Svechkov, born on 5 April 2003, was selected 19th overall in the 2021 draft by Nashville. The Russian moved to North America last year, playing 57 regular season games in the AHL for Milwaukee Admirals in 2023-24. Edstrom was born on 18 February 2005 and drafted in 2023.
I’ve listened to the entire interview segment and, unless I’m somehow missing it, Trotz doesn’t directly state anything else about where Edstrom may be playing this coming season. So, it may be that PHR have been slightly mistaken in their report and Edstrom will continue as planned with Frölunda.
That would be a natural progression for him. He had exactly the type of encouraging season in 2023-24 that you would hope for from a young prospect. Edstrom’s overall numbers may not stand out from a distance (19 points in 44 regular season games), yet for someone of his age they are very respectable.
More importantly, once it got to the play-offs you really saw how he was maturing in terms of taking on more responsibility. By the season’s end he had developed from showing glimpses of his potential to being one of the more noticeable players on the ice.
Building on that with a second full season in the SHL feels like the best next step. His use so far in the pre-season games, as the centre on Frölunda’s second line, suggests that’s what’s expected of him by Head Coach Roger Rönnberg too.
Frölunda will certainly hope so as Edstrom would be a big piece for them to lose less than a month before the Swedish Hockey League season begins.
It’s definitely a story to keep an eye on over the next few days.