2023 Montreal Canadiens Top 25 Under 25: #12 Adam Engström

Introduction

Adam Engström stood in the shadows behind teammates Liam Öhgren, Noah Östlund, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and Calle Odelius in his draft year, but after a stellar season following his selection by the Montreal Canadiens, it is Engström who’s in everyone’s spotlight. While the ‘big four’ from Djurgården’s academy played in HockeyAllsvenskan, Engström moved to Rögle and the SHL.

Most of us should have paid closer attention to what Rögle’s general manager, Chris Abbott, said before the season, when he boldly proclaimed that Engström was “the best defenceman playing in Sweden who was born in 2003.”

In one of the first weekends of SHL action, Engström first played less than 10 minutes, rested for 45 minutes, then played another full game with the U20s, where he topped 25 minutes of ice time. It was not long until Rögle provided an extension of his contract, keeping him on through this season.

He was considered an afterthought, or a complementary player, as Sweden announced the team for the 2023 World Junior Championship. However, in each game that Sweden played, Engström acquired more and more responsibility, and in the end became the perfect partner for the young Axel Sandin-Pellikka. Engström was also the one falling on the post to prevent Oliver Kapanen from scoring in the dying seconds in the quarter-final against Finland.

While Engström was a big part of turning Rögle’s season around, as mentioned by Sanny Lindström in one of our podcasts, the spotlight really shone on him in the playoffs. When everything was on the line, he was Rögle’s best player, and someone that the opposing coach found it difficult to coach against, and highlighted in his post series press conference.

Voting

He is the fourth player in a section of the rankings where five players are within .833 points on average of one another. It is tight, but he just edged out Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, Jordan Harris, and Sean Farrell.

T25U25 History

2022 Montreal Canadiens Top 25 Under 25: The Projects (40-31)

Profiling some prospects with standout skills, but a way to go with other aspects of their game.

Eyes On The PrizeJared Book

He kicked off our Projects article last season after being drafted, ranking 40th in a 52-player pool, with a prediction that he would climb for this year’s ranking.

Largest year-to-year rises

“Climb” doesn’t really do Engström’s rise justice. He leapt from a position 15 spots outside of the Top 25 to 12th, obliterating the record for a rise from one year to the next that had been shared by Martin Réway and Cayden Primeau by racing past over half the field. Even if he’d finished at the lowest position granted by a panellist this year (18th), it would have become the new bar for a 12-month increase in a player’s stock.

History of #12

Strengths

There are a lot of things that Engström does right. The main strength is his hockey IQ. When he has control of the puck, he reads the game like he is a step ahead, be it in the way he delivers the first pass or skates the puck out of the zone. He knows when to step forward and when to back off; he checks his shoulders and where to pass the puck even before he gets it.

His skating is technically perfect. The pivot from forward to backward skating is done in the blink of an eye, and he accelerates with ease. His edges are strong, but could do with a bit of improvement to get to the same level as his other skating attributes.

He also has that intangible strength that “if you offer him the pinkie, he will grab the whole hand” (Swedish proverb), something that we saw over and over again last year. He was supposed to play U20s and Champions Hockey League, but he played in the SHL. He was an after thought to the WJC, he ended up being the first-pairing defenceman in the end. He was supposed to learn in the SHL playoffs, but instead showed how you lead a team while playing professional playoff hockey at just 19 years of age.

Weaknesses

When he played against professionals in the SHL, he could look a bit lost when the tempo was raised in his defensive zone. The interesting thing was that as soon as the regular season was finished, those lapses seemed to go away. He was on the right side of the puck all the time, and didn’t panic when the pace and physicality went even higher. He raised his bar at the end of the season when it mattered the most, and it will be interesting to see if he can keep that level of attention on a cold snowy night in Örnsköldsvik.

While his shot is accurate and usually reaches the net for either a tip chance or a rebound, it wouldn’t hurt him to up the speed of both the release and the shot. His slapshot can look a bit puppy-like at times, as if the coordination isn’t perfect. It might change with more muscle, and a lot of reps, but at the moment it doesn’t always look very fluid.

Being a teenager in a pro league, he still needs to beef up, something that Adam Nicolas asked him to continue to work on after development camp this summer. Engström was visibly larger when I met him in Ängelholm two weeks ago, but there is room for improvement. He wants to build slowly and make sure he doesn’t overdo it so that he keeps his balance on his skates.

Projection

It is a big year for Engström. Can he avoid the sophomore slump and build up his game even more? That is the question that most fans and experts are waiting to see.

There have been a lot of fans saying Engström looks like the next Mattias Norlinder, however the difference is massive. Engström is good offensively, but not up to the level of flashiness Norlinder possessed in Sweden, at least not from what we have seen so far. Engström also played in the SHL – and played well – at the age of 19. Norlinder hadn’t been drafted at that time, and he was playing in HockeyAllsvenskan. More importantly though, Engström’s defensive game is more sound, while there were always question marks surrounding Norlinder’s defence.

Engström projects very well as a second-pairing NHL defenceman. He has played both sides of the ice in SHL, and it will be interesting to see where coach Cam Abbott decides to play him this year.

Engström will get the chance to earn a role higher up in the lineup, with the added input of power-play and penalty-kill usage. The PK usage will be the interesting thing to follow as this will showcase any defensive improvements to a greater extent.

The most important thing for fans to watch out for is his ice time. It was less than 15 minutes during both the regular season and playoffs, and that should really go up this year as will be used in all situations versus top opposition by the coaching staff.

Rögle’s assistant coach, Max Bohlin, joins the podcast to talk about Engström. The podcast is in three parts: an intro about Bohlin, one of the most interesting up-and-coming coaches in Sweden, and Europe; a second part where he gives his thoughts on Engström, and; at the end we get a short interview with Rögle’s head coach Cam Abbott and his views on Engström, and Bohlin.

2023 Montreal Canadiens Top 25 Under 25: #13 Rafaël Harvey-Pinard

Thanks to his incredible efforts on the ice every single night, Harvey-Pinard jumps four spots in his final appearance in our countdown.

Eyes On The PrizeScott Matla