Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, the SHL’s website suggests that fans of Sweden’s best hockey league pay attention to 10 “Junior-aged” players, including Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Axel Sandin Pellikka of Skelleftea AIK:
Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, forward, Skelleftea: The Norwegian great talent Michael Brandsegg-Nygard took a huge step in the Allsvenksan with Mora last year. The right-handed shooter had a tentative start, but grew gradually, finishing the regular season with 12 points in 18 games (and 18 points in 41 games total), and he posted 10 points in 12 playoff games. The forward joined the Norwegian World Championship team, and was then selected by the Detroit Red Wings as early as the number 15 in the NHL Draft (and no Norwegian player has been selected that highly before). Skelleftea’s expectations are that the 18-year-old, who turns 19 in October, are high. He’s a really sharp goal-scorer.
Axel Sandin Pellikka, defenseman, Skelleftea: One of last year’s big sensations in the SHL, Axel Sandin Pellikka impressed greatly with his defensive game, not only offensively, where he sometimes excelled on the power play. The 19-year-old thundered in 10 goals and was thus only a goal away from touching the goal record for a junior-aged defender in the SHL (11 goals in 1 season, posted by Tomas Jonsson in 1978-1979 and Nils Lundkvist in 2019-2020). He already is a high-class SHL’er and he will play a prominent role for Skelleftea.
Continued (in Swedish); it’s nice to see balanced praise for two of the Red Wings’ top prospects as key parts of Skelleftea’s build toward repeating as SHL champions this upcoming season.
I’m much less worried about the statistics that MBN or ASP post and much more interested in seeing both players play well and play consistently well for Skelleftea.
