Filip Eriksson
19y, Växjö Lakers, SHL / Nybro Vikings, HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden
“The plan wasn’t that he would be this good,” Nybro coach Tommy Samuelsson said when he spoke to Eyes On The Prize over the weekend. “What makes him good is that he is one of the few young players who knows hockey’s ABCs. He has the shot, he has the skills, but most of all he has intelligence on and off the ice.”
Samuelsson used this goal as an example of the hockey ABCs as he called it. “Look at the breakaway. First he blocks the shot, but no one knows Eriksson has it, then as he sees the defender he lowers the shoulder, and cuts in front of the defender to shield the puck. You don’t have to tell him, he knows it instinctively.”
“It’s funny, he had an okay game against Östersund, the whole team was so-so, but he finishes the game with two goals anyway.” And what goals they were, the first one, especially, a sharp, well-placed shot on the power play.
“I asked him if he wanted to play centre or wing. He said he’d play wing here, but you know he sometimes lines up as a centre without discussing it or asking for directions. He just does it. Perfectly. He gets to play 20 minutes a game here, not because Växjö has asked for it, but because he has earned it.” Samuelsson continues his monologue. It’s tough to stop him when he speaks about a player he obviously cares for.
“Speaking about Växjö, he is lucky to be in that organization. It would have been very easy for Växjö to call him back up after success like this. However, they will let him play out our season here before calling him back. What would he get in Växjö? Third line minutes at the most. The organization is so patient with him. Jörgen Jönsson, Henrik Evertsson, and Patrik Hall are so good at making sure the player develops. They won’t rush him for a quick fix. They want the long-term success.”
When it’s pointed out that Eriksson was a sixth-round pick, Samuelsson bites back. “What does that mean? Just of the top of my head, what was [Henrik] Zetterberg, [Pavel] Datsyuk and [Henrik] Lundqvist? I am not saying he will be one of them, but what does it mean to be a sixth-round pick? It means he wasn’t scouted. Look at what he did in Troja-Ljungby, then he broke his scaphoid bone after two games in the SHL and was out for the season. Teams missed him. It was a smart pick by Montreal. If he makes it to the NHL, he will be that kind of player that scores 30 to 40 points, but most importantly he’ll make other players better.
“He reminds me a lot of Jörgen Jönsson; he makes others better. [Eriksson] made Troja-Ljungby better. He comes here and makes this team better. Look at him next year, he’ll make that team better.”
Eriksson finished the week with three points, setting up a power-play goal in Saturday’s game against Södertälje.
Vinzenz Rohrer
19y, ZSC Lions, NL, Switzerland
Zürich is the regular-season champion, but that means nothing. “Only winning the title is enough” for Vinzenz Rohrer. There is a play-in round waiting to happen in the National League playoffs, and it gives the Lions an extra week off, and being the top team means a better seed as well.
With one game left in the regular season, Rohrer stands on 18 points (7G, 11A) in 48 games.
David Reinbacher
19y, EHC Kloten, NL, Switzerland
Kloten has started to score and grab points before going into the relegation series with Ajoie, something that should be good. The team has played better in the last few games, with Reinbacher anchoring the defensive line. While his personal points have been nonexistent, his overall defensive play has kept the sinking ship stable at least. It will be interesting to see Reinbacher rise to the occasion when the games really start to matter and when every mistake counts double.
Bogdan Konyushkov
21y, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, KHL, Russia
The playoffs started with a bang as Torpedo first bested SKA in the first game, and only a late equalizer from SKA in the second game made it possible for the Saint Petersburg team to tie the series deep into the second overtime period on Sunday.
Bogdan was part of the build-up to the first goal, and he got a secondary assist on the second. He was on the ice for the late equalizer, but wasn’t at all to blame for the goal. However, he was turned inside out by Vasily Glotov for the overtime winner. There are mitigating factors though, he had played over 37-and-a-half minutes when the goal happened, second only to Alexander Nikishin of SKA among all skaters on the ice. Still, it wasn’t Connor McDavid putting on the afterburners. Again it was his skating that caused a problem. He extended too far out on his backhand side and couldn’t accelerate in order to recover his position.
Overall, I thought it was a decent game, even better considering his ice time, but the defensive error made due to his skating is the thing that draws it down when you look at the game as a whole.
Oliver Kapanen
20y, KalPa, Liiga, Finland
Kapanen had a stellar game against TPS Turku with a goal and two assists. In the other two games of the week he drew a blank. KalPa is a team in the play-in spot and will face a tough battle to make a deep playoff run as Tappara and Ilves are the cream of the crop in Liiga this year and KalPa would face one of the teams in the quarter-final if they can get past the play-in round.
Adam Engström
20y, Rögle BK, SHL, Sweden
Rögle finds itself in a playoff spot as it has collected points in a couple of the games the last two weeks. Rögle will host Modo in Ängelholm in the last game of the regular season, and that will probably be the deciding game for Engström and Rögle in regards to the playoffs.
When Cam Abbott was fired in December, Rögle was in the top four in expected goals, sixth in expected goals against, but last in power-play efficiency. If Rögle can get its top two lines to produce and the power play to work, the team could be a really dangerous opponent in the play-in series. However, I have trouble seeing the team go past one of the top two teams [Färjestad and Växjö] in a potential quarter-final matchup.
Engström has played on his off-side in the last couple of games, having been paired up with Brandon Davidson. It has worked out as a pretty good shutdown pairing, but it’s not the role that Engström should be used in. The positive is that Engström’s defensive play has gotten a lot better compared to last season with the added responsibility to be the defensive anchor on his pair, especially when he was played with Viljanen before Davidson came back from injury.
Yevgeni Volokhin
18y, Mamonty Yugry, MHL, Russia
Volokhin finished atop the MHL in goals-against average at 1.57 and tied for second in save percentage at .938.
Yugry will play Novokuznetsk in the first round of the MHL playoffs, the Mammoths vs the Bears, starting on March 7.
Petteri Nurmi
21y, HPK, Liiga, Finland
Two assists in last week’s three games for Nurmi.
Dmitri Kostenko
21y, VHL, Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Six playoff games so far for Kostenko, one goal and over 20 minutes of average ice time.
Alexander Gordin
22y, Ryazan-VDV, VHL, Russia
Gordin’s season is over as Ryazan didn’t make the playoffs.
