The Athletic’s Corey Pronman asks five “Big Questions” regarding the World Junior Championship’s participating teams this morning, and one of his questions involves Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka:
Will Sweden’s blue line carry them to a big win?
The strength of Sweden’s team will come from their defense. Theo Lindstein (St. Louis) and Axel Sandin Pellikka (Detroit) were among the best defensemen in last year’s tournament. ASP and Tom Willander (Vancouver) were arguably the two top defensemen at their U18 World Championships as well. Sweden has a path to beating the U.S. As they did 18 months ago, they could match Lindstein/Willander up against USA’s top line to try to neutralize them as much as possible. Their forward group is very good, but not outstanding, so whether they can roll lines with Canada is to be determined. If ASP can provide a lot of offense as he has versus men in the SHL, he could be a variable that puts Sweden over the top.
Continued (paywall); ASP will serve as the Swedish team’s captain this upcoming season, and there’s a ton of pressure on him to perform at the kind of point-per-game basis that he has at the SHL level.
