Today’s Prospects News & Rumors column has a Swedish flare to it. We head over to Scandinavia to check in on prospects from the Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks who had big weekends in Sweden’s equivalent to the American Hockey League (AHL). Then we take a look at two Swedish junior players who are looking to shoot up the rankings for the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.
Kaut Gets First Points in Sweden
It has been an interesting few days for Avalanche prospect Martin Kaut. He was originally loaned to HC Dynamo Pardubice of the Czech Extraliga, but as COVID-19 cases are on the rise in his native country, the team reassigned him this week him to MODO of Sweden’s HockeyAllsvensken league.
He made his MODO debut over the weekend and picked up his first two points in Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to BIK Karlskoga. His first point came on an assist on Florida Panthers’ prospect Aleksi Heponiemi’s goal before scoring off a rebound for his first tally with his new team.
Kaut, originally drafted by Colorado 16th overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, had one goal in four games for HC Dynamo. He has spent the majority of the past two seasons playing for the Colorado Eagles in the AHL. He has 17 goals and 44 points in 97 AHL games. Kaut made his NHL debut last season and scored two goals and added an assist in his nine games.
Dahlen Dominating the Competition
As we reported a few days ago, Sharks’ prospect Jonathan Dahlen has been white-hot for Timra IK of HockeyAllsvenskan. He extended his point streak to seven straight games with a goal and two assists in Sunday’s 4-0 victory over Almtuna IS.
Dahlen has seven goals and a league-leading 19 points on the season, all scored in the last seven games. He has dominated HockeyAllsvenskan during his career. The two-time league MVP has 106 goals and 213 points in 204 total games. This success has yet to carry over to North America as he has 15 goals and 35 points in 59 career AHL games.
A Jump Start on 2021
It is never too early to start looking at prospects for the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is changing the scouting landscape with travel bans, no fans allowed at games and still many leagues not even playing yet.
This could lead to a lot of European prospects shooting the draft board, as most of the leagues across the continent have been able to start their full seasons. Two such prospects in Sweden showed off their high skill over the weekend in Simon Robertsson and Isak Rosen.
The 17-year-old Robertsson is having himself quite the start to the season with Skellefteå AIK J20 in Sweden’s top junior league. He has nine goals and 20 points in 15 games, so far. He has shown that he can be a dual-threat by both setting up his teammates and showing off his killer release from the right wing. He had two goals and three assists in a weekend series versus Leksands U20.
Robertsson has been averaging nearly 17 minutes per game and has been featured on both the power play and penalty kill. He likes to shoot the puck, with slightly over five per game.
Isak Rosen is another 17-year-old winger showing off his skills in the J20 Nationell. He has seven goals and 12 points in 12 league games. He showed off his slick moves over the weekend as he was able to create space for himself by avoiding a defender before finishing the play for his fifth goal of the season.
Robertsson and Rosen are just two of many European teenagers who are impressing early in the season. NHL Central Scouting released their preliminary players to watch list earlier this week and neither player was included. It will be very interesting to see where they end up whenever the 2021 NHL Entry Draft comes around.
All stats were provided by InStat Hockey.
