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Prospect Info: LHD Alfons Freij #37 2024 NHL draft

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Feb 22, 2012
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GeorgeJETson said:
I'm slow - what is this supposed to mean? :laugh:
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Looks like he was in Winnipeg at the iceplex for a peewee tournament at some point. The emblem on his shirt kind of looks like one of the many spring league tournaments. Lots of short (somewhat pay to play) tournaments with international teams that come over.
No idea if he's a Jets fan or not, but interesting place to take a photo 🤔
 
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TK 421

TK 421

Barbashev eats babies pass it on
Sep 12, 2007
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Love this kid, you guys got a good one. He'll be amongst the best transitional D in this class after 2-3 years of development. He's off to Bjorkloven in Allsvenskan where he'll be the youngest D on the roster and I'm looking forward to tracking him this coming season. I think he was undervalued coming in to the draft so kudos to the staff there for recognizing his skills.
 
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Krauser

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Oct 3, 2017
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Will Scouch (of the Scouching Report) had Freij as the 12th best player on his board. He tracks micro-stats like zone exits/entries, retrievals, passes to the slot, etc, and Freij looks great by those numbers.

You might remember the Scouching Report from the 2022 draft, where he was very high on Brad Lambert (top 3 on his board) despite his poor production in the Finnish men's league.

Scouting report on Friej from Will Scouch here:


and a longer discussion from his channel:


Here's another micro-stats scouting report from Elite Prospects where Freij's numbers are also great:
https://x.com/i/web/status/1807081390984294454
 
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Krauser

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Oct 3, 2017
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Here's a very detailed video scouting report on Freij. Praises his skating, ability to retain the puck under pressure, passing / playmaking, and defensive work -- not just puck retrievals or zone exits but man-to-man defending. His shot is the one major weakness, lacking power and not good at finding lanes.

Interesting clips showing his use of head fakes and postural feints to evade opponents and open up ice, and his ability to make saucer passes in tight spaces.

Conclusion is that he's stylistically similar to Gustav Forsling.

...

Interesting that this video analysis is almost the opposite of Corey Pronman's scouting report on Friej in the Athletic:

Tier: Has a chance to play games

Skating: NHL average
Puck skills: NHL average
Hockey sense: Below NHL average
Compete: NHL average
Shot: High-end

Analysis: Freij has been a top defenseman in his age group in Sweden for several years. He was a highly productive player in their J20 league and a top player for Sweden’s U18 team. His talent level is obvious. Freij is a decent sized defenseman with NHL skill and mobility. He can make a lot of people miss in open ice. He can create offense with pace and he has the hands to create chances out of nothing. Freij is a very good shooter with a pro one-timer from the point. His sense concerns me though. He plays with his head down and doesn’t make many plays. He defends fine, but his D-zone play isn’t as strong as his offensive work. I’m not sold on his NHL potential but the tools are good enough to give him a real chance to make it.
Click to expand...

I'm no scout but the video clips I've seen make Freij's skating look much better than average, and his shot quite a bit worse.

I haven't been impressed with Pronman's takes on the Jets picks for the last few drafts. Seems to get stuck on one or two ideas for a given prospect, and doesn't update those opinions.
 
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TK 421

TK 421

Barbashev eats babies pass it on
Sep 12, 2007
6,521
6,256
He played RD as a LHS this year which goes a ways towards explaining his 14 goals in 40 games, he basically got to QB the transition game from his own pairing while Sahlin-Wallenius did the same from another pairing for that Vaxjo squad. It allowed him a lot of latitude to decide when to activate the rush himself and his skating is so good he can actually gain the zone himself using deceptive head fakes as a tool to get space and maneuver through the neutral zone. I would expect making the switch to Allsvenskan will curtail some of this past seasons creativity at the J20 level but it shouldn't hinder further development and he'll certainly have a pathway to more ice time in Allsvenskan than he would have on an SHL squad.
 
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