MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article based upon the 20 minutes‘ worth of comments made by Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson at training camp today. Edvinsson made it clear that he feels he can be a better defenseman and a better overall player:
“The guys are on me, (Dylan) Larkin especially, to be harder, win my one-on-ones,” Edvinsson said. “I have a pretty big body, pretty long reach. In Sweden you kind of time everything. It’s different kind of one-on-one duels along the boards. Here you need to be more aggressive and that’s what I need to be better on. If I work on that and feel comfortable with that the game is going to step up and I’ll build my confidence.”
Edvinsson has an ideal role model in Moritz Seider, who is nearly as big (6-4, 205) and showed last season how tough he is to play against on the way to winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
“He’s playing the kind of hard game I want to develop,” Edvinsson said. “I try to see the practices when he’s on, how he plays. We have a different kind of play style but a lot of things he does I can do as well, to play hard and play the puck.
“He’s one of the best defensemen in the league. I need to earn my spot. I try to look at him as much as possible to develop my game from there and maybe reach that level some time.”
Edvinsson, the sixth pick in 2021, is trying to earn a spot on the NHL roster after flourishing with Frolunda in the Swedish Hockey League. His strengths are his skating and puck-moving ability. But even the smaller Lucas Raymond, Edvinsson’s former Frolunda teammate, showed him how to compete in drills.
“He likes to battle. It’s fun. It gets everyone else going,” Edvinsson said. “One thing I really learned is you need to be so aggressive and harder on the player.”
Continued; it’s good that Simon is interested in playing defense, because he’s an effortless offensive player, but he must apply himself to succeed in stopping opponents.
Great to hear the vets pushing him