This comes from ProHockeyRumors.com’s Brian La Rose:
Red Wings goaltending prospect Filip Larsson won’t be coming back to North America after all. After being loaned to Almtuna in Sweden to start the season, he was expected to come back and battle for playing time in the AHL with Grand Rapids. That isn’t the plan anymore, as the Metal Ligaen in Denmark announced that Detroit has loaned the netminder to Frederikshavn for the remainder of the season.
The White Hawks’ website confirms the loan, adding this from Red Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin (in English):
Vi har fået følgende kommentar fra Red Wings assistant general manager, Ryan Martin.
“We’re excited for the opportunity for Filip to further his development with a great organization like Frederikshavn. It’s an ideal spot for Filip to see game action in a competitive and skilled league as he continues to work his way up the pro hockey ranks. We’re looking forward to monitoring his progress.”
Update: It’s official:
Update: The #RedWings have reassigned goaltender Filip Larsson to Frederikshavn (Denmark) from Almtuna (Swe-2). pic.twitter.com/1MVysrbly5— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) January 10, 2021
I am not going to speculate why Larson was out for much of last year. He played little. He now seems to have been moved down to a lower quality league than the Swedish 2nd division. One can only hope he gets his mojo back this year.
Larsson actually had very bad and uncontrollable nausea, per Hockeysverige.se. He was too barfy to play. Now he’s headed to the Metal Ligaen because there’s no ECHL for him to play in.
So going to play against even lesser competition is better? Think the Wings are about done with him.