Swedish prospects and Anders Forsberg
I was doing some reading and research into our scouts the other day, and came across a pretty interesting story about one of our scouts. Maybe some of you have already heard this story, but I'll share it for everyone else.
I will start from the start. Bryan Murray, of course, was general manager of the Detroit Red Wings in the early 90s. During this time he worked with Detroit's legendary European scout Hakan Andersson.
For those of you who don't know who Hakan Andersson is, I must digress, he is one of the greatest, and certainly the most celebrated NHL amateur scout of all time. He is giving much or all of the credit for Detroit drafting Nicklas Lidstrom, Tomas Holmstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen and Ville Leino, to name a few. I remember reading a story in a Sports Illustrated not too long ago about the 89 draft, when Andersson was just a no-name scout looking to make a name for himself and get into the business, he went the first two rounds trying to convince Jim Devallano to take a chance on a Swedish defenseman named Nicklas Lidstrom, but to no avail (this was back when drafting any European was considered high-risk). finally, by the third round, Andersson was practically begging Detroit's GM and chief scout to pick him, and they finally did.
So during his time as GM, Bryan Murray developed a personal relationship with Andersson and they are still friends to this day. In early 2008, Andersson's friend Anders Forsberg was looking for a job, Andersson and Forsberg worked together in Sweden for the past decade. So Andersson recommended to Murray to hire Forsberg.
In the 2008 draft Forsberg was instrumental in convincing Murray to draft Erik Karlsson in the first round and likely played a large part in the drafting of 2 more Swedes in that draft, Andre Petersson and Emil Sandin as well as two more Swedes in the 2009 draft, Jakob Silfverberg and Robin Lehner in the second round.
As everyone knows, Erik Karlsson quickly became out top prosepct and is now already playing in the NHL as a 19 year old, not to mention playing 18-20 minutes most nights.
Andre Petersson is an offensive dynamo. Playing his first full season in the Swedish Elite League this year and is leading all junior-aged players in goal scoring, not to mention having tied Jordan Eberle for the goal-scoring lead in the World Juniors, where he was playing on the top line right wing on a line with Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson (EDM) and Marcus Johansson (WSH). The things I liked about him were his quickness, puck controlling ability (he loved having the puck on his stick, and it often looked like he had it tied to a string) and offensive awareness. I can't count how many scoring chances he had - and finished- off the give-and-go.
Emil Sandin is considered a good all-around forward, a team player who works hard and forechecks well. He is undersized (5'10, 180 lbs) but is said to be strong on the puck and a good hitter for his size. After he was drafted he had a pretty good first full season in SEL with 17 points in 53 games, but is not looking like he will improve on those numbers this season.
Jakob Silfverberg is a good offensive forward who shows 2-way potential and is good on face-offs. He has good size and all the makings of a future NHL player. In the World Juniors he centered a line between Anton Lander (EDM) and Anton Rodin (VAN) that was very good at both ends of the ice. The biggest thing I noticed was his wrist shot. Very hard with a quick release.
Robin Lehner was the top ranked goalie in the 2009 draft according to The Hockey News. He is often compared to Henrik Lundqvist because of his size and technical skills. Seems to be doing well in the OHL, with a 2.92 GAA and .913 SV%. Maybe someone who has seen him play in play in the OHL can tell us more?
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