What are your takeaways from this tournament?
The outcome of the final was a bit surprising, but apparently the best team won.
I was pretty impressed with the talent level this year. There are some real gems amongst this crop. IMO, the top tier is Milan Sundström, Douglas Johnsson and Dorian Eklund Aspe. They can all go really far and have all the tools to become high end players. Eklund Aspe might not have had the best of tournaments, but you could see his skill level and potential. Hopefully Douglas become as big as his dad.
I also really liked Mio Forsell, whom has all the tools neded to become a good player. The Dalarna and Gästrikland talents didn’t have their best games when I watched them, so I will see if I can follow up on them later. I did like Elliot Lahtinen though. As Örebro didn’t reach the playoffs, we missed out of Svante Forsman, Filip Wahlén and Olle Törnqvist whom all have really good stats in J18.
A lot of other players had a good tournaments but I’m not sure about their NHL upside. Jonathan Cremonese has a lot of upside though. A player I really liked, who looked like a can-do-it all kind of player is Sigge Larsson. It doesn’t hurt that his older brother is 6’5 and 215 lbs…and if Sigge also becomes that size…watch out. Another dark horse was Sixten Gustavsson in Västerbotten. Maybe not too much upside, but despite his lanky frame, he was really physical and he could move the puck. Reminded me a bit of Marcus Pettersson.
I have no real clue about goalies. Obviously Carl Johnsson had a good tournament.