He's been a bit disappointing. Rakell has been slowing down as well.
I think that he has played well like 90% of the time. The pts must start to come for him sooner or later (like you can't play top 3 line hockey and don't score any pts), but I still think its too early to tell how this season is going for him. He could score 0.75 PPG or he could keep slumping and maybe see a drop in ice time in a month or two.
Our scouts might have had Forsberg ranked below a number of guys who were still available as far as we know. They picked who they thought was the BPA and since Madden took over as head scout, our drafting has been among the best in the NHL. Lets wait until Forsberg even makes it over to North America before we decide if the pick was a good one or not. The league Forsberg is scoring a PPG is the same one Karlsson scored a PPG in last season at the same age.
JMHO, but while Filip Forsberg is a very good prospect who could become a very fine hockeyplayer -- compared to other Swedes over the years he was picked very high in the draft.
Please note that I did not see a second of him at the U18, and he was reportedly very good there. But if you look at what he did in the All-Swedish league, his play there at the most in a normal year warrented a top 15-25 pick, or something in that neighborhood. Which is fine (not all that many Swedes have been picked higher over the years etc). And again, I am not saying that anything but the sky is the limit for this kid and so forth.
But the stocks in Swedes are very high right now, and last year was probably not that good in the top 10. So, I wouldn't rush to scrutinize teams that passed on him. I don't think anyone had an easy job around those picks last year and I think we gotta give that draft basically a handful of years before things sort out...
When I see FF this season I see a kid that's basically in the Jacob Josefsson mold but showing signs of possibly being able to take a huge leap in the right direction. I definitely think it was a blessing in disguise that he wasn't picked like in the top 5, because he needs to be given a bit of time and room to develop.
He's a U19 player, he made it with about a month for this season
He is born in December, right?
If anything, that's good to see because I think the talk about the advantage of being born early in the year is getting a little over the top right now...
If anything, that's good to see because I think the talk about the advantage of being born early in the year is getting a little over the top right now...
Yeah, goes strictly based on age group. -94's are "off the hook". Many of the best Swedes are late birthdays since you mention it. Sedins, Z, Bäckis all September or later. Also many of the recent high draft picks like Hedman, A.Larsson and Landeskog.
(BTW since when did they allow 17 y/o to play without a full mask?)
