The Athletic’s goaltending expert, Cat Silverman, has “gone through the film” that involves examining the Red Wings’ pair of Swedish goaltending draft picks, Jesper Eliasson of Troja-Ljungby (drafted 84th overall) and Victor Brattstrom of Timra IK (drafted 160th overall).
Silverman sees the Wings’ 2018 draft picks as risky but potentially useful from an organizational depth perspective:
After the draft was over, I spoke with a few scouts to see what they thought about the Red Wings’ decision to take the goaltenders they did. After all, quite a few teams went off the board and took guys who, in theory, would have been available as free agents in just a few weeks’ time.
One scout said that even though free agency may be a way to avoid using draft picks on an imprecise position, it’s always better to control the situation.
In Brattström’s case, the Red Wings may have already been aware that the goaltender was set to split the crease next season for Timra IK’s pro team with the Wild’s 2017-18 AHL goaltender, Niklas Svedberg. So Brattström will be learning alongside a fellow Swede who has NHL experience and recent exposure to the North American game. If Brattström has a breakout season, it’s easy to see that he could have become the subject of a bidding war by NHL teams in the summer of 2019.
Another thing to consider is the ease with which players can make their way overseas.
Continued (paywall), and this is an intriguing read…
