Team Sweden head coach Tomas Monten spoke with VMHockey.se’s Hampus Kjellberg today, and he was asked whether the Swedish Ice Hockey Association would ask whether Lucas Raymond or Alexander Holtz would be made available for the World Junior Championship in Edmonton:
“We haven’t actually made that contact yet, with any of the teams. We had contact during the summer and I’ve had contact with the players. And, it’s just like always, the players are interested in playing in the World Junior Championship, but if they play in the NHL, they want to play there, that’s how it works. The contact hasn’t been made yet, but we will take it from there at the end of the month,” says the national team coach.
Tomas Monten and his management team have thus not begun contact with the NHL teams yet regarding Raymond and Holtz’s availability for the WJC. But if the national team coach were to guess wildly, Detroit will hold on tight to its new crowd favorite, Lucas Raymond.
“Detroit will probably say that, ‘Yes, we understand that you want us to lend him, but we do not want to lend him.’ [With the Red Wings] I probably think that will be more of a formality,” says Monten.
Regarding Alexander Holtz [who’s playing in the AHL], the team coach feels a little more hopeful about finding a solution. Although it’s hard to predict right now, a lot can happen in the near future.
“With New Jersey, I don’t really know how they think and how they’re divided going back and forth. They may not know themselves right now, either, to some extent,” he says.
