Two more NHL scouts and prospect gurus weighed in on the performances made by participants at the 2022 World Junior Championship on Sunday.
Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala wrote an “NHL Scout’s Take” on the players that he watched during the World Junior Championship, and he had this to say about Simon Edvinsson:
Simon Edvinsson, Sweden (Detroit Red Wings, sixth overall, 2021)
WJC Stats: 6GP-1G-1A-2PTS
Edvinsson is a hulking 6-foot-6, 207-pound defender. He projects to be a two-way “D” at the NHL level. He skates very well for his stature and can lead the rush on occasion. He sees his options and makes sound puck plays. I thought he could have been used more at this tournament. This kid is going to have a long career in Detroit. He compliments a partner who is more of a risk taker. There’s also some growl to his game. He takes away space effectively and gaps up physically.
Bukala continues, and I’d say that’s a particularly polite take on Edvinsson’s ups and downs at the tournament;
And The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler offered the following takes on Red Wings prospects who participated in the WJC (and I can’t include everything he says, given that there were 9 Wings prospects participating, so we’re going to go with his takes on Team USA and Team Sweden):
F Carter Mazur (Detroit Red Wings): Physical. Played a hard game. Showed good feel too. Office in front. Opportunistic offensively. Timing always seems to be right. Knows how to get open into space. His game really fits the bumper role on the PP because of the way he positions himself to take passes (and how quickly he turns and shoots). Mazur was their clutch scorer in some big moments and impactful when he wasn’t finishing with his what-you-see-is-what-you-get game.
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F Red Savage (Detroit Red Wings): Worked his tail off. Great back pressure. Effort plays. Strong skater the length of the ice. Always seemed to spend his time in the offensive zone. Savage is exactly what you want in a bottom-six forward at this level.
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F Theodor Niederbach (Detroit Red Wings): Consistent. Played off his linemates well (there were times in each game where each iteration of the line he was on was the only one for Sweden that could maintain offensive zone time). Some moments of creativity. I’d give his tournament a meh on the whole though.
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D Simon Edvinsson (Detroit Red Wings): For a player as big as he is, he continues to impress me with his ability to side-step pressure. Good stick defensively. Physical. Great close-outs. Players struggled to get around him. Without Leo Loof (suspension) and Anton Olsson (injured) to start, he logged big minutes before falling sick. Shot coming off a little harder these days than this time last year, which is a big deal for him. Talking and directing a lot ahead of face-offs. Looked like a leader/someone who wanted to take charge and trusted himself. Head always up. Has this move where, instead of trying to stickhandle when his back is to the middle of the ice and he’s facing the boards (a hard thing to do give how long his stick is), he just bounces the puck off the boards and then spins back towards the middle of the ice to pick it up again. Executes it beautifully. There were some relative lows though. I thought he struggled against USA, I thought he was just OK in the semi, and he took a penalty reaching in in the bronze medal game which cost the Swedes their only goal against (though he was otherwise good in the bronze medal game, logging a game-high 25:54 and 10:43 in the third period).
D William Wallinder (Detroit Red Wings): Some sloppiness with the puck and defending one-on-one at times but also quite noticeable in others. I thought as the tournament progressed he settled in nicely, playing off of Andrae effectively and using his skating to go get pucks and advance play. Some nice outlet passes. It was a mixed bag all told though.
Wheeler continues (paywall), and, as you might know by now, I really disagreed with his takes on Niederbach and Wheeler in my reflections upon the Red Wings’ WJC participants. But that happens…
