Swedish national junior team coach Tomas Monten didn’t include Lucas Raymond on this past summer’s World Junior Summer Showcase roster, raising some eyebrows in the hockey world, but Monten argued that Raymond probably wouldn’t be made available to the Swedish WJC team as he would be making his debut with the Red Wings.
Monten will be naming his country’s team for the Four Nations Cup in Sweden this November, and he tells HockeyNews.se’s Henrik Sjoberg this morning that neither Raymond nor William Eklund will be part of the Swedish team heading to the World Junior Championship warm-up. What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:
William Eklund has taken a spot in San Jose, and posted 3 assists in 4 games, while Lucas Raymond plays on Detroit’s first line and the right-handed playmaker has met all expectations as he plays a leading role directly on the team’s offensive game.
“I saw the first game in its entirety and then I’ve seen the highlights and other clips and he looks very good. He gets to play in the right environment to contribute with what he has to work with,” says Monten.
He has already counted Raymond out of games at the World Junior Championship.
“He plays higher up and more power play time than he did in Frolunda,” says Monten. “He looks stronger, the young guys do it automatically, but it really seems that there has been a change. We don’t count on him [to play for us] and that’s always the case. Adam Boqvist didn’t play last year, and Rasmus Dahlin didn’t play his last two years. These guys have been too good early.”
Continued; Monten is more optimistic about New Jersey Devils forward Alexander Holtz, who’s playing in the AHL at present, but he’s probably going to omit all of Eklund, Raymond and Holtz from his WJC roster.
