Rakapuckar’s Henrik Lehman posted a column about Lucas Raymond yesterday, offering his take on Raymond’s hat trick performance. Lehman discusses how Raymond may be better-suited to playing a more direct game on a smaller rink, and he also spoke with Red Wings player development specialist Niklas Kronwall regarding Raymond’s achievement in scoring a hat trick on Sunday:
“It’s been cool to see,” Kronwall said, and he continued: “I think of it this way, Raymond is a smart player, a competitive person and he has very cool ‘skills.’ He’s so fast in his brain, fast in the hands, can make quick decisions…The small rink can suit him better. Then come the inserts that don’t happen in the same way in the SHL. It is a different game in Sweden. His skills are unique.”
The translation of Lehman’s article is intriguing;
HockeyNews.se’s Henrik Sjoberg also asked Swedish national team GM Johan Garpenlov about the performances of Raymond, William Eklund and Jonathan Dahlen, who’ve all impressed early, and you can take this for what you will:
Garpenlov is not allowed to reveal which Swedes are on his list of 50 players and five goaltenders–but the competition is fierce at all positions. October 15th was the deadline for teams to submit their player lists [to the IIHF].
“I have to go on what I’ve presented and not what I may do. And if you look at a guy like Raymond, if he were to be on the list, he’d have to compete and play on the top lines and on the power play. If you look around the league, it’s quite a tough competition in a few spots there. I’m not saying that it’s impossible and that it couldn’t happen, but it’s probably pretty tough to settle in there,” says Garpenlov.
With the help of advisors Niklas Kronwall and Henrik Zetterberg, Garpenlov has good inroads in Detroit when it comes to Raymond’s progress, both on and off the ice.
“We all understand how skilled and talented he is, and then we’ll see where he goes. No one would be happier than me if you get to see a young guy make the best impact, regardless of whether he’s on the 50-man list or not, but we have to be a little sane so far. We’re only five or seven games into the season.”
My take? Raymond probably didn’t make the Swedes’ 50-man Olympic reserve list, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise given how deep the Swedes are at the NHL level.
