Joel Svensson put up 20 points in 51 HockeyAllsvenskan games last season. For a 20-year-old homegrown player, that was a good start. More importantly, it looked like there was another offensive step there.
That is why we started talking him up last season. The speed was there, the confidence with the puck was there, and when he got offensive opportunities he looked capable of driving play rather than simply filling a spot.
This preseason has strengthened that view. Svensson was one of IK Oskarshamn’s best players against Södertälje and scored the deciding shootout goal against Kalmar. He finished second in IK’s preseason scoring with six points, two goals and four assists, behind only Calle Karlsson. He also picked up two power-play points in the available preseason statistics.
There is another reason this is worth watching from North America: Svensson is a Chicago Blackhawks draft pick. That makes his next step in Oskarshamn relevant well beyond HockeyAllsvenskan.
Now Södertälje sporting director Emil Georgsson is seeing the same upside. Speaking to Barometern-OT after watching IK at close range twice, Georgsson said Svensson looked extremely good and predicted that he could finish among the top 15 scorers in HockeyAllsvenskan.
That is a serious prediction. Top 15 is not just promising-young-player territory. It would put Svensson among the league’s more productive forwards.
Preseason is still preseason. The space gets smaller and the games get harder once the points count. But Svensson enters the season with a clearer offensive role, more responsibility and expectations that now stretch beyond Oskarshamn.
We have liked the upside for a while. Georgsson has gone further and put a number on it: top 15. We will remember that one.