Prospect Jeppe Vinther (2015 draft)
 

Jeppe Vinther is probably one of the brightest Danish D prospects at the moment. Although he is still young, and it's far from sure that he will turn out, I still thought we should have a thread about him.

He turned 16 just over a month ago. And this season he has already made himself a part of the U18 national team and a part of Frederikshavn AL-Bank ligaen team, where he has so far played 9 games, with 9 points though.

The nearest comparable as far as merit goes is probably Philip Larsen, who at the same age didn't make Esbjergs AL-Bank ligaen team. Although he played Allsvenskan the year afterwards.

Since I am in Canada this year, I haven't had a chance to watch AL-Bank ligaen, so if someone who has watched him play could give a few insights, it would be greatly appreciated.

Got the chance to watch him play when the White Hawks visited Sønderjyske. Both teams played very sound defensively, White Hawks limiting Sønderjyske to only 20 shots, of which 1 found the net for the only goal of the game. I didn't focus that much on Jeppe Vinther, since seeing an NHL'er in action in the AL-Bank-Liga was occupying me a bit more, but from what I recall seeing of Vinther, he did well, no big mistakes. Wasn't on the ice when Sønderjyske scored on the Power Play.

I have been impressed with his development the last couple of years, and he is clearly establishing himself as one of the interesting 1996 born players. When that is said, I must add that I still think Matias Lassen, Rødovre is the most talented defender from that birth year.
I would rather put the label ”new Philip Larsen” on another D-prospect; Morten Jensen, Esbjerg. He is even from the same town as Philip Larsen, and has for a long time been standing out as a very special talent.

Haven't seen Vinther - but I have seen Mathias Lassen a couple of times. He's good. Still trying to minimize the number of mistakes, he has shown some upside in terms of skating and hockey sense. Nice we finally have some d-men coming up to get exited about :)

To put perspective on the whole Philip Larsen-thing... Wasn't the league at a higher level back when he was in Esbjerg? My gut feeling is that young guys have a shorter path to the AL-Bank-ligaen today.

I know this kid is not a D-man, but his numbers are very impressive for his age:

Rasmus T. Andersson