Why is William Wallén undrafted?

William Wallén is that kid who got some scary brain aneurysm last year. But thank god, he recovered and now is 100% again. Wallén is born august 1991, and was eligible for the 2009 draft. However, even though he has shown a lot of promise, all NHL teams passed on him. Back in april at U18WC, Wallén had 8p in 4 games, and was among the best swedish forwards. Then recently in the U20 4 team tournament, Wallén was once again impressive with 4p in 3 games. All signs points that he will make the swedish WJC team.

So why was he undrafted? Well it seems his injury scared off some teams, plus he is pretty small around 5"8. However, I think that's a pretty poor reason as Jordan Schroeder is around that size and was a 1st rounder.

Wallén has all the tools to become a solid NHLer, I expect to see him drafted next season.

Sweden's recent Junior success is much thanks to the defense

A lot has changed for the Swedish U20 team the last few years and there was a time when sweden hardly could get out of the group play in the World Junior Champs.

Luckily, swedish hockey saw the problem with this and put Tommy Boustedt on the task and he has done an awesome job with our juniors, and so have Per Marts, the U20 team coach.

While sweden produces better prospects now, it is especially on the defense side it really shown. Right now we have a very solid defense from 1st rounders in the draft. First it was Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson, now it is David Rundblad, Tim Erixon , Oliver Ekman Larsson and 2011 draftee Adam Larsson.

Sweden can fill atleast a top5 defense with star power at upcoming WJC. Hedman will play in NHL this season, so he wont see any action.

U20 4 team tournament leading scorers

1	TARASENKO Vladimir	Russia	3	2	3	5	2	0
2	HARTIKAINEN Teemu	Finland	3	3	1	4	-2	27
3	EKMAN-LARSSON Oliver	Sweden	3	2	2	4	3	2
4	OSTAPCHUK Sergei	Russia	3	1	3	4	2	2
5	VATANEN Sami	Finland	3	1	3	4	-2	2
6	WALLEN William	Sweden	3	1	3	4	1	6
7	JORMAKKA Pekka	Finland	3	3	0	3	-2	0
8	PETERSSON Andre	Sweden	2	2	1	3	3	0
9	SILFVERBERG Jakob	Sweden	3	2	1	3	2	2
10	CHERNOV Pavel	Russia	3	2	1	3	2	2
11	LARSSON Adam	Sweden	3	1	2	3	4	0
12	KRÜGER Marcus	Sweden	3	1	2	3	2	2
13	DOLEZAL Tomas	Czech Republic	3	1	2	3	2	2
14	GRANLUND Mikael	Finland	3	1	2	3	-1	2
15	JOHANSSON Marcus	Sweden	2	0	3	3	2	0

The U-20 tournament in Finland

U20 Sweden recently played a 4-team tournament in finland. Sweden won all games against russia, czech rep and finland, and all 3 wins were convincing. There is no doubt that the talent level in sweden is much better then 7-8 years ago.

Sweden had a really strong defense with rundblad, erixon, OEL and Larsson leading the way.

Best swede was phoenix draftee Oliver Ekman Larsson with 4p in 3 games. 2011 draftee Adam Larsson was also impressive for playing in the U20 squad.

More from this tournament soon.


In other news, Toronto Keeper Jonas Gustavsson did excellent in his first preseason game with rookie leafs. He stopped 36 shots and yielded only one goal.

Welcome to a swedish hockey blog about our prospects

The reason this blog is in english is that so foreign readers can check how things are going. This blog will focus when swedish hockey prospects play, how much they play and how they do in the scoresheet. My impressions will be from TV, Internet streams, other reports and scoresheet.

Swedish hockey finally has a new generation of stars coming.

Happy reading.