Hampus Lindholm

Being disappointed with a prospect is something that I've started to understand as being a reality of scouting. It's not so much because a player's poor performance reduces the entertainment value of the game, it's just that it makes me wonder more about intangibles than I should. Were my expectations too high? Did he have an off night? Did somebody who ranked him highly see him on a night where he played above his ability?

When I watched Filip Forsberg a couple weeks back, I didn't have these questions. In fact, he played better than I thought he would. Maybe because Forsberg matched, even exceeded, my preconceptions, I expected Hampus Lindholm to do the same. I wonder if it's fair to Lindholm that I was judging him by the same standards as Forsberg, but if those standards are subconscious is it really possible to have any control over them?

The way the mind processes the game changes with each one. Before the Rögle/Leksands game, I had yet to see Swedish hockey in person, and had yet to see Allsvenskan hockey at all. Based on that game, I came into this Rögle/Malmö game with a certain set of expectations as to how the play would be.

Cost and Value in Sweden

Before I moved to Sweden, I talked to a lot of different people about it. "I'm going to school in Sweden" elicited one of two responses:

"Dude, the girls.."
or
"It's so fucking expensive!"

Filip Forsberg

Filip Forsberg is a guy I've been anxious to get a glimpse of since Craig Button pegged him 2nd overall in his pre-season rankings ahead of Mikhail Grigorenko. Button has a tendency to go against the grain, and I can't say I always agree with his take, so the idea that anyone but Grigorenko could slot in behind Nail Yakupov seemed a little ridiculous to me. I didn't get a chance to watch the 2011 Ivan Hlinka Tournament but I knew that Forsberg was a standout player there and I think that's largely what Button was basing his ranking on. On the other hand, he had a pretty weak showing at the WJCs with one point in six games, ceding the starring role to 5th round Ducks pick Max Friberg and really getting outproduced by most every other forward on the roster. It might be a little ignorant of me to knock him based on that tournament as I didn't get a chance to watch it while I was traveling, but from a purely on-paper perspective those are weak numbers for a top prospect. Central Scouting seems pretty set on Yakupov and Grigorenko as 1A/1B type talents, but they also have Forsberg first overall amongst Europeans which is a great honor in itself.