Filip Larsson’s international hockey journey will continue for another year. HV71 of Sweden’s Allsvenskan announced that they’ve added the goaltender on loan from the Red Wings for the 2021-22 season and have signed him to a one-year contract.
This season, the 22-year-old started on a loan to Almtuna in Sweden’s second-tier league before transferring to Frederikshavn in Denmark in January. His numbers in both leagues weren’t particularly strong as he managed just a .883 SV% in Sweden and a .889 mark in Denmark, numbers that don’t inspire much confidence in his NHL potential.
Larsson was a sixth-round pick of Detroit back in 2016 (167th overall) out of Djurgarden’s junior system in Sweden. He came to North America in 2017, spending one year in the USHL before moving to the NCAA level with Denver the following season. Somewhat surprisingly, he left the school after just his freshman year to sign with the Red Wings, a decision that looks like a mistake in hindsight. He struggled in his lone season in their system in 2019-20 which was split between the AHL and ECHL, helping to prompt the loans for this year.
Larsson is entering the final year of his entry-level contract in 2021-22 and the fact that he has been loaned back home already coupled with his recent struggles suggests that it’s quite unlikely that Detroit will be tendering him a qualifying offer in 2022.
Sixth round? Talk about Filip-ing a coin.