The Hockey News’s Steven Ellis posted a meaty profile of Red Wings prospect and Team Sweden defenseman Simon Edvinsson, and it’s a great article:
“He’s like a walking bulldozer. When he wants to, he can make you disintegrate with just a stride or two. Nobody on the planet wants to go 1-on-1 with him.”
That’s just one scout’s opinion on Simon Edvinsson, the 6-foot-6 hulking blueliner from Sweden. He was drafted sixth overall by Detroit in 2021, and with Calder Trophy Winner Moritz Seider already in the lineup, he’s not far from giving the Red Wings one of the most feared 1-2 defensive duos in the NHL.
It pays to be bad in some cases. And the Red Wings aren’t far away from escaping the bottom.
“Congrats to Detroit,” Swedish coach Tomas Montén said with a smile after Sweden’s victory over Switzerland to open the 2022 World Junior Championship.
Edvinsson signed his NHL entry contract back in April, and all signs point towards the big blueliner playing a key role on the team’s blueline this season. So it was especially interesting that he chose to play for Sweden’s junior team during the unusual summer world junior tournament because while many other NHL-bound players decided to skip out — Shane Wright, Simon Nemec, Juraj Slafkovsky, Owen Power and Cole Perfetti come to mind — Edvinsson saw value in heading back and representing his country. Sweden holds a perfect record through two games and is one of the favorites to win gold.
