Detroit Hockey Now continues its audit of the Red Wings organization’s prospects this evening, and Bob Duff introduces us to defenseman Gustav Berglund, who bounced around the SHL, J20 league and Swedish Allsvenskan this past season:
The 21-year-old Berglund tends to get lost in the shuffle of Wings defensive prospects from Sweden, and he was one of the few Europeans to not take part in the summer development camp last week, as Duff notes:
There were high hopes for Berglund as a sleeper pick when the Wings claimed him late in the 2019 NHL entry draft from Frolunda. That’s the same organization responsible for producing Red Wings rookie sensation Lucas Raymond and top prospects Simon Edvinsson and Elmer Soderblom.
While acknowledging that there appears to be a well of potential in Berglund, Red Wings European scout Hakan Andersson gave a frank admission that Berglund has encountered off-ice issues in the past.
“He moved to Frolunda and had a tough time living on his own,” Andersson explained. “He didn’t eat properly, he was tired, didn’t train as hard. They had to straighten him out a little bit.”
At best, Berglund was projecting to be a third-pairing rearguard in the NHL. With so many defensive prospects now in the system, it’s looking as though many are passing by him on Detroit’s depth chart.
Detroit GM Steve Yzerman treasures players with high levels of hockey IQ and work ethic. It’s entirely possible that Yzerman isn’t all that interested in investing a lot of time and energy in a player who has shown evidence in the past that he’s not willing to invest in himself.
“Yzerman is pretty strict,” Andersson said. “He wants competitive players, too. There’s no dogs. Sometimes you draft a guy with high talent but they don’t compete.”
Continued; Berglund could be a wild card prospect, certainly, but at this point, the 6’2,” 201-pound defenseman is not a likely graduate of the SHL right now.
