Montreal Canadiens prospect Filip Eriksson will have the opportunity to play himself into the Swedish squad for the World Junior Championship as he has been picked for the dress rehearsal in Chomutov, Czechia, from November 9 to 12. The tournament consists of teams from Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia, and host Czechia.
Eyes On The Prize was invited to the press conference for the presentation of the squad by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association. Swedish coach Magnus Hävelid was kind enough to answer a couple of questions in English for the benefit of our readers.
“I think he’s an all-round player and a very, very smart player. He can play for us on both the power play or a penalty kill. I think he’s growing into the SHL right now. He takes huge steps week by week, and it will interesting to follow him now in Czechia,” Mr Hävelid says.
He then talks about the recovery process that Eriksson has had since his injury last season. “I’m impressed with him the way he walked through the system: from Troja, with two years in the U18s, and then switching to Växjö last year. He then had a bad injury. He’s a player who looks like he really, really likes to play hockey and he’s smart, as I said. If you get injured, you can become too negative and don’t do anything, but he decided to practice harder. Because it was to his hand, he could skate and do a lot of gym exercises and grow into the environment [in Växjö] in regards to the training culture.”
Mr. Hävelid also points out that Eriksson has “taken the opportunity to play in Växjö when the door has been left open by injuries. He has taken that chance, even if he might have been given that chance even without injuries. He has gotten more and more time on the ice; a useful player that can play both on the wing and as a centre.”
Sweden will bring a stacked team, and there are U20 players in the NHL who could be targeted to go back to the World Junior Championship, as it’s hosted in Sweden, which might leave Eriksson on the outside looking in.
Eriksson has mentioned the tournament as a big goal for the season and it is up to him to make sure that he gets the opportunity.
There will be a rotation during the tournament so that every forward will get to play at least three games.
Sweden’s full squad is below:
