Europeans left out of the draft

I am unsure if this was on purpose or not but when you look at the draft it appears to be almost entirely North Americans drafted. There was a player from the Frolunda's B team at 122, and of course there were Europeans drafted, but at least half of all picks were Canadian and one fourth were American. That left few places for Slovakia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Russia, and Finland. In fact it is kind of amazing how few Russians were drafted. They must be counting on them staying in Russia and not coming to the US so not worth the draft pick. Pure speculation on my part, but I think the draft was weird.

Swedes in the NHL draft

Several Swedes from Frölunda were drafted in 2004 and it looks like there will be more this season. RICHARD DEMEN-WILLAUME, who was listed with the Eliteserien club but never played with them more than a few times, was drafted by Colorado. PJ Axelsson's brother, ANTON AXELSSON, is going to be a good player. I saw him in a pre-season match last year in Kungälv near his hometown, he played excellently. He was a big fan favorite as well. FRED and JOHN WIKNER were also drafted.

Goodenow resigns

Trevor Linden and other players on the NHLPA board, (including Daniel Alfredsson?), weakened Goodenow's strategy and linked players salary to NHL revenue. This ended the work stoppage but hurt the players since they are told by the NHL how much the NHL earns and the NHL lies. Perhaps the popular conception that hockey players are not very smart is true, but they falied to stand up for each other and will be payed much less as a consequence. The get what they settled for.

Henke's page for the New York Rangers

Henke's page lives here - Henrik Lunqvist. Interesting to see if he makes the big club, their other drafted goalie is a Cuban-American and would be the first Cuban-American to play in the NHL. Still I'm rooting for Henke and when they get a chance to see him in action so will the rest of New York.

Pre-season round up - Post strike version

Espen Knutsen retires.

It looks like Mattias Timander will stay in Sweden. That is godo news for Modo, bad news for the rest of the league. He is a tough back with size and a chip on his shoulder. Modo will probably lose Alexander Steen to Toronto though. He was a former Frölunda player, part of the effective farm system Frölunda has, but he did not produce as much at Modo. Interesting to see how he adjusts to the NHL. You can checkout Modo's web presence in English here - http://www.modohockey.se/english.cfm

In other news, Espen Knutsen, from Djurgården is retiring. He played in the Elitserien for years, as well as the NHL, and was an integral part of the team from Stockholm as they won championships, tough loss of a character player.

Game On.

Yes, it is an obligatory blog title when you blog about hockey, but it is also true. The NHL will hit the ice again next fall. The issue for this blog is how it will affect the quality of play in Sweden, and in that regard there appears to be some pretty good news. Swedish television reports; "Konsekvenserna blir att unga svenskar väljer att stanna längre i elitserien och att äldre spelare kommer hem tidigare." The translation is - The consequences will be the younger swedes will chose to stay longer in the Elite League and older players will come home sooner. This is very good news. We will see some talented younger players I hope, and Sweden seems to have a fair amount of them.