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Jonatan Berggren

Detroit Red Wings Recall Berggren, Smith

at CDT | by 2 Comments

The Detroit Red Wings have added two forwards to the roster, recalling Jonatan Berggren and Givani Smith ahead of their game tonight. The moves follow Matt Luff’s injury and come before a four-game road trip that includes three California games starting this weekend.

Smith, 24, played 46 games last season for the Red Wings and has already suited up twice this year, adding his patented brand of physical hockey to the bottom six. The young forward racked up 108 penalty minutes last year, to go along with four goals and seven points – all career highs. He projects as a fourth liner or extra forward at this point, bouncing up and down whenever needed.

It’s Berggren that will draw much of the attention, given the unknown upside that he brings. The 22-year-old Swede was selected 33rd overall in 2018 and developed into a star in Europe before coming to North America last season. In 70 games for Grand Rapids, he scored 21 goals and 64 points, impressive totals for a player experiencing the exhausting AHL schedule for the first time. This year, he’s back with seven points in seven games for the Griffins and will now presumably get his first crack in the NHL.

Whenever he does make it into the lineup, Berggren will be making his NHL debut. It’s not clear when that will be, however, as just yesterday head coach Derek Lalonde told reporters including Ansar Khan of MLive that David Perron and Oskar Sundqvist would be healthy enough to go tonight.

Atlantic Notes: Lundell, Stapley, Berggren

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Panthers welcomed back a key player back to the lineup for today’s game against New Jersey as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated center Anton Lundell off IR.  The rookie had missed close to a month with a lower-body injury but still sits sixth in rookie scoring with 38 points in 52 games.  More importantly to Florida, Lundell will be a big boost to their penalty kill as he leads all of their forwards in shorthanded ice time per game which is an area that the Panthers will be looking to shore up down the stretch.  Having their top forward in that regard back should only help their cause.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  • At this point, it does not appear as if the Canadiens will be signing college prospect Brett Stapley, reports Mathias Brunet of La Presse. The 23-year-old center will be wrapping up his college career next week with Denver and has picked up 41 points in 39 games for the Pioneers this season, putting him in the top 20 of NCAA Division I scoring.  If Montreal doesn’t sign the 2018 seventh-rounder, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent on August 16th.
  • While Red Wings prospect Jonatan Berggren has impressed in his first season in North America, there appears to be some hesitance in bringing him up for the stretch run. As Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press points out, Detroit’s farm team in Grand Rapids is still battling for a playoff spot in the minors and it appears the organization may be prioritizing that as being more valuable than a handful of NHL games to finish off this season.  The 21-year-old sits second on the Griffins in scoring with 44 points in 57 games.

Detroit Red Wings Agree To Terms With Jonatan Berggren

at CDT | by 1 Comment

The Detroit Red Wings are getting another top prospect under contract, agreeing to terms with Jonatan Berggren on a three-year entry-level contract. The young forward recently completed a breakout season with Skelleftea AIK in the SHL and will now begin his journey to the NHL.

Berggren, 20, was the 33rd overall pick in 2018, just a few picks after Joe Veleno. He stayed in Sweden after being selected and ended up scoring 45 points in 49 games this season, his first spent fully at the SHL level. Impressively, that was good enough to lead the powerful club and actually tied him for sixth in league scoring. As the release from the Red Wings includes, he became just the 13th player in SHL history to record 40 points in a season at age 20 or younger.

It’s that offensive potential that the Red Wings saw in the 5’8″ forward, and what will help him succeed at the next level. He has put up huge numbers at pretty much every step and will now be joining a program in Detroit that is filled to the brim with other talented youngsters. It’s not clear exactly where Berggren fits into the depth chart, but that’s certainly not a bad thing for a rebuilding club like the Red Wings.

Though sometimes with players like this, the first year of the entry-level contract is spent overseas, Berggren’s team indicated that his time there was finished after this season ended. It seems more likely that he’ll be suiting up for the Grand Rapids Griffins next season, or even the Red Wings should he make an impression in camp.

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