Wennerholm about the WC band
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Leo Carlson, 18, boards a plane to a toilet in Tampere.
I hope this will lead to a major international breakthrough for him.
Because despite the fact that he’s a World Cup debutant and hasn’t even been drafted, it feels in a strange way that he’s the big star in Sweden’s World Cup squad.
The player everyone is talking about.
Small World Cup fever that, although it causes tingling in the body, is the merit of Leo Carlson.
The player who can become a new national champion in the World Cup.
I pretend it wouldn’t be the case, but the opportunity is there anyway.
He’s already found a teammate in Lucas Raymond, and if Toronto makes it out of the Stanley Cup playoffs, there’ll be another one available.
William Nylander is just one game away from being eliminated against Florida.
I really hope Sam Hallam signs Leo for the first game against Germany on Friday and I think he does too.
I can’t see any late arrival in the NHL threatening his creative and offensive capabilities as a center.
In this case, he will become the youngest player ever to participate in the World Cup finals in Sweden, beating Niklas Backström by a month.
Low budget project
That alone raises Sweden’s World Cup championship, which was more about how expensive our NHL stars are than securing who’s to come.
There has been some low-budget investment on the insurance front, with NHL Swedes ready to play more up the hierarchy in their clubs.
Perhaps the only exception is Detroit’s Lukas Raymond and it was noticed in Czech hockey games, scoring three goals and as many assists in his first three international matches.
Raymond who finished fourth in the 2020 NHL Draft exceeded expectations.
But Leo Carlsson is expected to have a future that could make him one of the greatest Swedes in the NHL.
Then we switch between the names of Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg, Niklas Backstrom and the brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin.
I’m old enough to see them all make their debut as juniors at Tre Kronor.
Now Leo Carlson will be the next player in this line and it cannot be claimed that the gang that preceded him stopped developing after the first fuss.
on the contrary.
At the same time, young players have always had a hard time getting any bigger roles in Sweden’s World Cup teams. They are taken more to watch and learn, with minimal play time and limited roles.
I remember Mats Sundin mostly sitting on the bench in his first training session in Bern in 1990, although he made history as the first European to go first in the NHL draft the previous summer.
The following year he returned as a 20-year-old and shot Tre Kronor to WC gold in Turku.
Then he was the most dominant of the entire tournament.
It was probably Foppa who got the biggest part in his World Cup debut, when he was released as an 18-year-old by Kony Svensson in Prague in 1992. It paid off too, as Foppa scored six points (4+2). ) and contributed strongly to the Swedish World Cup – gold medal.
It is needed in the restroom
Now I know Sam Hallam grew up with Connie Evenson as a role model and I hope he has the same courage and ingenuity to release young players.
Because Leo Carlson is special.
Not just as a player.
He has a personality that goes home to the cabins and a youthful, free-spirited nature.
Only that he fell asleep last winter and got trampled in a match with Orebro.
Then he was like any other eighteen-year-old, although the consequences were more severe.
He is needed in the WC, where the top stars of the NHL have refused the championship.
Not only in Sweden, but it basically applies to all other countries including Canada and the USA.
Even the best juniors in the world ignored the tournament.
17-year-old Conor Bedard could have been the youngest member of the restroom, but he refused when asked. He wanted to prepare for the NHL season, as he is sure to debut in Chicago who won the draft lottery tonight.
But those who finish second and third are included in the list of the best 18-year-olds in the world.
Leo Carlsson and Canadian Adam Fantelli, who finished second before the draft before the Swede.
Center, he is, too, and WC will likely have one last duel before the NHL makes its final standings.
Much like when Patrick Lane and USA’s Austin Matthews played each other at WC in Moscow in 2016.
They were both eighteen years old and were the dominant players in their teams. Laine had just turned eighteen, but he clinched the title as MVP of the entire tournament.
But in the draft, Matthews moved on and raised the Toronto Maple Leafs to what they are today.
Hallam has thought of every detail
Now, Tre Kronor assistant general manager Joseph Boumedienne is certainly hoping Leo stays the third overall, as the third-place pick in the draft is the Columbus Blue Jackets.
But history is full of young players who made history in the WC and the Olympics.
In Beijing, I saw Slovakian Juraj Slavkovsky make a huge breakthrough.
He had just turned 17 when he made his World Cup debut in Riga 2021 and was still just 17 when he scored seven goals at the Beijing Olympics and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
Otherwise, there were no major surprises in Hallam’s pre-World Cup squad.
He’s picked a maximum of 25 players, three goalkeepers and 22 outfield players, and I think the substitutes would be top notch if he wanted to change anything.
Hallam thought of every detail and every game situation when building this team.
It’s not an offensive beast, but it’s a tough team to beat.
Just like his old club Växjö-
Read also: The team presented – here is the Sweden national team at the Hockey World Cup