HockeyNews.se’s Mattias Ek spoke with Djurgardens IF sports director (i.e. GM) Joakim Erikson regarding two Swedish NHL prospects who are scheduled to return to North America.
Eriksson tells Ek that he wants to keep both players–including Grewe, who has signed with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit–in Sweden for as long as possible.
What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:
Djurgarden hopes for extended NHL loans: “What’re hoping for”
STOCKHOLM. With the uncertainty surrounding the start of the NHL season, Djurgarden hopes to keep Los Angeles Kings-loaned defenseman Tobias Bjornfot for the time being.Forward Albin Grewe may stay with the SHL team longer than Bjornfot.
Djurgarden has borrowed LA Kings defender Tobias Bjornfot until NHL training camps in the USA begin. From the beginning, it was thought that the loan would take place until the end of October or beginning of November, as the NHL’s training camps would begin in mid-November.
But the plan has changed, as the NHL has not yet nailed down a date for the start of next season.“Tobias will play for Djurgarden until the Los Angeles Kings’ training camp and regular season starts. If they’re moved forward, Tobias Bjornfot can stay longer, but right now, the camps will begin starting and December, with the NHL starting in early January. If there’s no new information coming here, that’s the situation right now,” tells Djurgarden’s sports director, Joakim Eriksson, to Hockeynews.se.
Tobias Bjornfot has an assist in six games for Djurgarden, and he served a suspension of three games for a knee-on-knee hit against Linkoping.“I have no date relative to his return at the moment because I don’t know when training camp starts for the Kings. Normally, Tobias would be in Los Angeles two weeks before their training camp begins. That’s probably the time frame that applies. It’s not only in Europe that there’s a problematic increase in coronavirus, however, so it remains to be seen what happens in North America as well,” says Joakim Eriksson.
Djurgarden has also had to keep forward Albin Grewe, 19, who should be playing for the Saginaw Spirit in the junior league OHL. Grewe was drafted by the NHL team Detroit, but unlike Tobias Bjornfot, he hasn’t yet signed an NHL contract.
“Detroit’s plan was for Albin to play in the Ontario Hockey League in North America, a league that contains teams from both Canada and the USA, which makes things problematic with travel and quarantine and things like that,” says Djurgarden’s sports director, Joakim Eriksson.
Djurgarden has had injuries and illnesses during the preseason and start of the SHL season, which paved the way for Albin Grewe to play. He has an assist in eight games. He plays, on average, just over nine minutes per SHL game.
“Albin has our blessing to be here and play until [the OHL] starts. Nobody knows if it will start. The players are practicing, training and developing in the meantime with Djurgarden as long as their intended leagues and activities are not operational on the other side of the Atlantic,” says Joakim Eriksson.
