Joel Svensson recorded 20 points in 51 HockeyAllsvenskan games last season. For a 20-year-old homegrown player, that was good. More than anything, though, there was a sense that he had more to give.
That was why we started talking him up even then. The speed was there. The confidence on the puck was there. And when he got the chance to play in offensive situations, he looked more like a player capable of driving play than someone merely filling a spot in the line-up.
This preseason has only strengthened that feeling. Joel was one of IK’s best players against Södertälje. Against Kalmar, the local lad stepped up and scored the decisive shootout goal. He finished the preseason with 6 points—2 goals and 4 assists—placing second in IK’s internal scoring standings behind Calle Karlsson.
He also registered two power-play points according to Swehockey’s statistics. That is interesting. If Joel is going to take the next step, this is where we want to see him: on the puck, in offensive situations and trusted with the responsibility of creating something.
And now we are not alone in seeing it.
Södertälje sporting director Emil Georgsson told Barometern-OT that Joel looked frighteningly good in the two exhibition games against SSK. He believes Joel was the best player on the ice in both and could finish among the top 15 scorers in all of HockeyAllsvenskan.
That is quite a bold prediction. Top 15 does not mean “exciting young player.” It means being one of the league’s more productive forwards.
And sure, exhibition games are exhibition games. Once the regular season begins, there will be less space, better-prepared opponents and considerably fewer freebies. But Joel enters this season with something he did not really have a year ago: a clearer offensive role and expectations from outside Oskarshamn as well.
We have believed in his potential for a while. Georgsson takes it further than we have and puts a concrete number on it: top 15.
That is a prediction we intend to remember.