Detroit Red Wings Recall Jonatan Berggren
Monday: After the team’s back-to-back wins over the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames this weekend, CapFriendly is reporting that the Red Wings have loaned Berggren back to the Griffins.
Friday: Earlier today, it was reported that Detroit Red Wings forward, Robby Fabbri, would miss the next four weeks with a lower-body injury. As Fabbri will now land on the injured reserved for the team, the Red Wings announced that they have recalled forward Jonatan Berggren from the Grand Rapids Griffins under emergency conditions.
This confirms an earlier report from Kevin Weekes of ESPN, who indicated that Berggren would likely replace Fabbri once the injury news became public. After spending most of last year in the NHL with Detroit, Berggren will get the opportunity to stay with the team long-term, after surprisingly not making the team out of training camp earlier this month.
Becoming one of the sneakier draft choices made towards the end of the Ken Holland era for the Red Wings, Berggren has excelled at every level since being drafted by Detroit in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft. In his last season playing for Skellefteå AIK of the SHL back during the 2020-21 season, Berggren impressed with 12 goals and 33 assists in 49 games played. Next season, making his professional debut in North America, Berggren would score 21 goals and 43 assists in 70 games for the Griffins, leading the team in points during his rookie campaign.
Last year, after getting off to a point-per-game start in the AHL, Berggren would get the call-up to Detroit, staying with the team for the rest of the season (minus a week stint in the AHL in February). In his rookie season, Berggren would score 15 goals and 13 assists in 67 games played, relatively modest numbers in hindsight, but it was good for ninth on the team in scoring.
Coming into this year, Berggren would have seemed like a relatively easy choice to make the Red Wings roster out of camp, but over the offseason, the team added six new forwards into the mix through trades and free agency, as well as the return of both Fabbri and Michael Rasmussen to start the season. Although not a star-studded roster by any means, Detroit has become a relatively deep team over the last few seasons.
Sweden Announces 2023 World Championship Roster
Sweden has revealed its roster for the upcoming 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship, and it’s filled with an impressive mix of NHL players, high-end SHL players, and young prospects. The team is hoping to bring in Sweden’s first medal at the tournament since winning back-to-back golds in 2017 and 2018.
Headlining the roster are some prominent NHLers, including seasoned veteran Jakob Silfverberg and younger players like Lucas Raymond, Jonatan Berggren, and Fabian Zetterlund. For Silfverberg, who’s rumored to return to Sweden after his current contract with the Anaheim Ducks expires, this is his first appearance at the Worlds in over a decade. There’s also top 2023 NHL Draft prospect Leo Carlsson, who could see his name called as early as third overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets after spending the entire season up in the SHL with Örebro HK.
On the blue line, Sweden is led by a pair of longtime NHLers in Christian Folin and Patrik Nemeth, but their best defender is undoubtedly Washington Capitals youngster Rasmus Sandin. Others, such as three-time Swiss league defenseman of the year Henrik Tömmernes, provide some valuable depth.
In net, Sweden will be relying on a trio of capable goaltenders led by one of the best prospects in the world – Jesper Wallstedt. The Minnesota Wild prospect posted a .908 save percentage in 38 games with the AHL’s Iowa Wild and put up a .940 mark in international play for Sweden last year at the World Junior Championship. If Wallstedt doesn’t run away with the crease, there’s a high-end second option in SHL and KHL veteran Lars Johansson, who recorded a sparkling .958 save percentage for Sweden at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
The full roster can be found below:
F Pär Lindholm
F Dennis Everberg
F Marcus Sorensen
F Andre Petersson
F Leo Carlsson
F Lucas Raymond
F Oscar Lindberg
F Jakob Silfverberg
F Jonatan Berggren
F Fabian Zetterlund
F Linus Johansson
F Carl Grundström
F Jacob de La Rose
F Alexander Nylander
D Christian Folin
D Henrik Tömmernes
D Patrik Nemeth
D Lukas Bengtsson
D Rasmus Sandin
D Anton Lindholm
D Jonathan Pudas
D Joel Persson
G Jesper Wallstedt
G Lars Johansson
G Jacob Johansson
Detroit Red Wings Recall Berggren, Smith
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
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
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.