DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji examines Red Wings prospect Jesper Eliasson’s 2018-19 campaign “By the Numbers” this morning. Wakiji discusses Eliasson’s 2018-19 campaign, and Red Wings goaltending coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson also weighs in on Eliasson’s progress:
Quotable: “He’s going to be contending for the world junior team this year in the Czech (Republic) for Team Sweden. His development has drastically improved. I think it was a shock to him that he was drafted in the third round last year. It exceeded his expectations. But we thought highly of him and we set up a plan for him last year that he would improve specifically his lateral mobility and his secondary movement after rebounds and he did so. That’s very, very noticeable. Like most Swedish goalies, he’s structured but the one element that he has that separates him from his counterparts in Sweden is his ability to react and live those situations, react a little bit cleaner rather than have a little bit of a technical structure you can’t break. That’s one thing that Jesper is very, very good at is again, like Filip [Larsson], he has great hockey IQ and awareness, great reads, it’s just a matter of improving body control and that’s going to come over time, just like anything.
