Red Wings prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka is going to play in the Swedish Beijer Games for the Tre Kronor, and the Swedish news agency TT posted an interview with ASP:
Axel Sandin Pelikka makes his debut for the Tre Kronor: “Awesome”
He makes his debut in both Tre Kronor and in the Globe [Arena].
Defensive talent Axel Sandin Pelikka, 19, is looking forward to taking a new step in his career.
“It’s going to be cool, I hope it’s very yellow in the stands,” he said.
The Tre Kronor’s meeting with the Czech Republic on Thursday in the home-held tournament, the Beijer Hockey Games, will be the first hockey game in a newly-renovated arena which is popularly still known as the Globe, but officially named the Avicii Arena.
For just over a year, the arena has been renovated on the inside, at a cost of over 800 million Swedish Kronor, including new seats and stands all the way down to the stage, black chairs that will make the arena warmer, and a new ceiling.
‘Extraterrestrially good’
Axel Sandin Pelikka has never played in the Globe before.
“I’ve been there and watched a Global Series match (NHL) a few years ago. That’s the only thing I’ve ever seen. It’s going to be awesome, it’s a big arena where a lot of people can fit,” he said.
Are you nervous?
“I’ve played hockey in big stadiums before so it’s just going to be fun. I’ll have relatives and friends in the stands, so it’s just about going out and playing my game and not holding back anything,” said the defenseman who is still a junior-aged player.
In Stockholm and the Globe, the World Championship will also be played in May.
Of course he likes to go there – but lies low in the talk.
“Of course you’d like to play [then], but it’s going to be a lot, it’s NHL guys who should be involved. You should do something absolutely extraterrestrially good to get in there, says the Norrbotten (born in Gällivare) Skellefteå defenseman.
He has already signed a contract with Detroit in the NHL and is expected to leave Sweden after this season.
First since Fetisov
Junior national team coach Magnus Hävelid leads Tre Kronor in the home tournament, while the regular federation captain Sam Hallam goes to Montreal on Friday for the Four Nations Tournamente, where a Swedish NHL national team plays.
Inevitably, on the question of whether he can see Sandin Pellikka in a Swedish World Cup squad in May:
“There will be a lot of NHL professionals who want to join. But if you had asked me last year about (Felix) Unger Sörum, I might have said ‘no, it’ll be hard’ and then he’s standing there… So the road is open anyway.”
Axel Sandin Pelikka has already taken big steps and is one of SHL’s best defenders.
He’s just a goal from tying the defenseman’s record on the junior side of the SHL of 11 goals. The record-holders are Tomas Jonsson (1977-78) and Nils Lundkvist (2019-20).
When he was named the best defenseman for the second year in a row at the World Junior Championship, he was the first defenseman in almost 50 years, after Soviet star defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov (1977 and 78).
