Minnesota has signed their top draft pick from this month’s draft as the team announced that they’ve signed winger Liam Ohgren to a three-year, entry-level contract. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 18-year-old was the 19th-overall selection last week following a strong season in Djurgarden’s system. Ohgren spent part of the year with their junior team and was quite productive offensively, picking up 33 goals and 25 assists in 30 games, earning him the award for the Best Forward in that league in the process. That earned him a lengthy stint with their SHL squad where production and playing time was a lot harder to come by which is quite normal for draft-eligible players. The fact that Ohgren played well enough to stick with the top team for 25 games is impressive in itself.
Ohgren has another year left on his contract with Djurgarden although the fact that he was a first-round pick allows the Wild to control where he plays next season and since he wasn’t drafted out of the CHL, he could go to AHL Iowa right away. However, allowing him to stay at home and play in Djurgarden for one more year wouldn’t be bad for his development as Ohgren would likely spend most of the season at the SHL level this time around. If he doesn’t play in ten games with Minnesota in 2022-23, his contract will slide and still have three years remaining on it a year from now.
That’s wild
If he will continue in Sweden it would be in the second highest leauge, Hockeyallsvenskan, since Djurgarden got kicked down from SHL.