Prospect Info: Lukas Vejdemo

[Whitesnake]

Grant McCagg ‏@grantmccagg 8m8 minutes ago
Timmins on Vejdmo - "Our Swedish scout was never so excited about a pick like this since Lidstrom….he was scouting in Detroit then."

Thank god Timmins didn't say that out loud.....

 

[AvsRobin]

My only gripe is the following : could he have been available in the 5th?

A swedish journalist who was covering the draft said there were talks beforehand that he could go as early as in the 2nd.

This guy has produced the best in our J20 team since Jacob Josefson, who was very highly rated at the time. A guy like Krüger not on his level.

It's very likely that he wont play in the SHL this season but will be put on loan to a club in Allsvenskan where he will get a bigger role. Management has hinted they will.

Edit: I always felt Djurgården should have played him on the first team this season, but their coach doesn't like young players. He played like ONE game where he got 12 minutes. He made one mistake and we didn't see him in the first team anymore this season. Despite dominating in J20.

 

[Jakomyte]

A swedish journalist who was covering the draft said there were talks beforehand that he could go as early as in the 2nd.

This guy has produced the best in our J20 team since Jacob Josefson, who was very highly rated at the time. A guy like Krüger not on his level.

It's very likely that he wont play in the SHL this season but will be put on loan to a club in Allsvenskan where he will get a bigger role. Management has hinted they will.

Edit: I always felt Djurgården should have played him on the first team this season, but their coach doesn't like young players. He played like ONE game where he got 12 minutes. He made one mistake and we didn't see him in the first team anymore this season. Despite dominating in J20.

Sounds like he'll fit in with da system quite well.

 

[GREMLIN]

Grant McCagg ‏@grantmccagg 8m8 minutes ago
Timmins on Vejdmo - "Our Swedish scout was never so excited about a pick like this since Lidstrom….he was scouting in Detroit then."

Stupid Oilers going with the wrong 1st OV once again

 

[Pierre Dagenais]

We drafted the next Lidstrom?

 

[GREMLIN]

We drafted the next Lidstrom?

Likely better but lets not get ahead of ourselves

 

[Habsfan18]

Yesterday nobody knew who he was. A youtube video is posted and now he's a future superstar.

That is seriously HF Boards in a nutshell. Never change.

To be fair, I like his upside and trust Trevor and Rockstom. But this thread is SO HF Boards.

 

[Gustave]

We drafted the next Lidstrom?

Out of all our secret picks(Avstin, Trunev, Crisp, etc), they only one I remember that panned out is Grabovsky (Sergei K to a certain degree was at least known. You can put him in the panned out list If you want). I take all the compliments towards these secret picks with a grain of salt. In fairness, I take all selections with said grain of salt. Never get too excited, never get too low.

 

[yianik]

Out of all our secret picks(Avstin, Trunev, Crisp, etc), they only one I remember that panned out is Grabovsky (Sergei K to a certain degree was at least known. You can put him in the panned out list If you want). I take all the compliments towards these secret picks with a grain of salt. In fairness, I take all selections with said grain of salt. Never get too excited, never get too low.

We're due again.

 

[Rise from the Ashes]

Those of you arguing the need for a "homerun" pick; this is the one the Canadiens took a swing at. I think the difference that separates this pick from Erik Nystrom is the character factor consistently reiterated by Timmins and Bergevin. Vejdemo apparently works out very hard and its promising to see he battled back from serious injuries. What worries me about this pick is that there is no way in hell Hakan Andersson would miss a player like this if his upside was so great. Perhaps that is why Montreal was surprised to see him "fall" to the the third round. Lastly, Rockstrom has not made any real great finds in awhile (I do not count de la Rose; anyone could tell what he would be at the NHL level).

Lastly, I feel Timmins had to hype up this pick because we had so few draft picks and likely wanted to tell Habs fans what they wanted to hear. That does not mean he is lying about his excitement about Vejdemo, but its rare he comes out so strongly by saying, "You should expect a lot."

I hope he develops positively and continues his upward progression.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

I mentioned him and Bernhardt as late round picks in one draft thread so I deserve all accolades

 

[parachutist2]

For those who think we could've drafted him in later rounds, his linemate Bernhart was drafted in the 4th round by the Rangers, so they probably watched him as well. We might have snatched him before them as Vejdemo had the highest ppg in his league. Bernhart had more points but played more games and had a slightly lower ppg pace.

 

[Habsawce]

Halak was a secret pick that panned out! Also look at Gallagher and Markov, late picks. It's not like this team doesn't find players out of the first 2 rounds. But I do agree that the comparisons are always a bit ridiculous.

Like Pierre McGuire about McDavid. "He's got the vision of Gretzky, the speed of Lemieux, the poise of Superman and can jump 45 feet in the air!"

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

Mehh, not sure about this one. I am usually not a fan of drafting overage player with high round picks. But pretty good stats, best ppg in the SElit. Does anyone know how his skating is?

If he was a terrific skater I would have been happy with this pick, since is not (kind of average or only good), I am a little bit disappointed. Imo, the were better player available at that pick. I believe we could have gamble with him and wait for our 5th round pick.

I must say I changed my opinion about this pick, from what I have been able to see (thanks to HabsProspectsVideos), his skating ability is way above my expectation, absolutely amazing. Seeing such a big skill guy being able to make plays at high speed is very impressive, nice shooting ability also, I am really looking forward to this pick. Would like to see more of him, but I definitely see lots of offensive upside in him. I don't know much about his defensive play, but his speed and size will for sure ease the learning process. If on top of that he is a great character guy, I couldn't ask for more.

 

[Treb]

Those of you arguing the need for a "homerun" pick; this is the one the Canadiens took a swing at. I think the difference that separates this pick from Erik Nystrom is the character factor consistently reiterated by Timmins and Bergevin. Vejdemo apparently works out very hard and its promising to see he battled back from serious injuries. What worries me about this pick is that there is no way in hell Hakan Andersson would miss a player like this if his upside was so great. Perhaps that is why Montreal was surprised to see him "fall" to the the third round. Lastly, Rockstrom has not made any real great finds in awhile (I do not count de la Rose; anyone could tell what he would be at the NHL level).

Lastly, I feel Timmins had to hype up this pick because we had so few draft picks and likely wanted to tell Habs fans what they wanted to hear. That does not mean he is lying about his excitement about Vejdemo, but its rare he comes out so strongly by saying, "You should expect a lot."

I hope he develops positively and continues his upward progression.

There is no indication he didn't like him. Maybe they thought he would be available in the 4/5th.

 

[HABitual Fan]

From what I am reading it appears he will be loaned out to a second division team in Sweden. Does this open the possibility for Montreal to swing a deal with his team to get him permi$$ion to play junior in Canada if he is selected in the import draft? We will see if he is selected on June 30.

 

[le_sean]

Exactly. People think the CSS/THN/McKenzie/etc lists are the "standard" and if you deviate from that, you're taking a risk or a gamble. It's not like that all. Teams pick the players they like the most, period. It doesn't matter to Timmins if Vejdemo was a consensus 6th rounder, if he's the top-rated guy on their list when they pick, they take him.

For example, the Rangers scout said they had Ryan Gropp as their sixth highest rated forward in the entire draft and said they would have taken him in the first round if they had a pick (they picked him 41st). Maybe it's just lip service but that's how teams draft. They have their guy and they pick him. They don't care what the general opinion is.

Not just that, but a big reason he wasn't high on any top scouting lists is because he didn't have much exposure. Hurt as an 18 year old and didn't play in any international tournaments this last season. That will hurt your ranking with average scouts.

However, when Timmins and Rockstrom went to see him, there might have been a handful of other scouts there too. I'm going to assume he was ranked higher on team lists that has actually seen him and they felt they had to jump early.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

Why hasn't he played in any national tournaments though?

 

[TT1]

lets call it a ninja pick instead

 

[OnTheRun]

A swedish journalist who was covering the draft said there were talks beforehand that he could go as early as in the 2nd.

This guy has produced the best in our J20 team since Jacob Josefson, who was very highly rated at the time. A guy like Krüger not on his level.

It's very likely that he wont play in the SHL this season but will be put on loan to a club in Allsvenskan where he will get a bigger role. Management has hinted they will.

Edit: I always felt Djurgården should have played him on the first team this season, but their coach doesn't like young players. He played like ONE game where he got 12 minutes. He made one mistake and we didn't see him in the first team anymore this season. Despite dominating in J20.

Well, that's something you don't like to see in a "we just drafted that guy" threads.
Hopefully he will get a fair shot next season and don't go into stalled development mode.

 

[Habruti!]

We never know this could turn out to be a Zetterberg or Alfredson type of pick. They saw something and went for it.

We won't know if it's a decent pick for the next two years. If he plays in the NHL only 1 game, as a 3rd round selection it will already be a nice finding.

Time will tell...

 

[Mrb1p]

I'll go crazy if this kid ever even scratch the surface of what Zetterberg is. There's just no way.

I see some Eller in him though. Big, fast, soft hands.

 

[Disappearing Semin]

Last time i saw Montreal select someone and I was like "Who?" it was Lernout last year and I really like him now so I fully trust Timmins

 

[montreal]

A swedish journalist who was covering the draft said there were talks beforehand that he could go as early as in the 2nd.

This guy has produced the best in our J20 team since Jacob Josefson, who was very highly rated at the time. A guy like Krüger not on his level.

It's very likely that he wont play in the SHL this season but will be put on loan to a club in Allsvenskan where he will get a bigger role. Management has hinted they will.

Edit: I always felt Djurgården should have played him on the first team this season, but their coach doesn't like young players. He played like ONE game where he got 12 minutes. He made one mistake and we didn't see him in the first team anymore this season. Despite dominating in J20.

Thanks for the info, what team in the Allsvenskan would he be loaned to? I haven't followed Djurgården in the past, (mostly just Frolunda due to Lehkonen and Collberg) I know that Djurgården added some vets like Patrick Thoresen so I thought he might be in tough to make the team.

Out of all our secret picks(Avstin, Trunev, Crisp, etc), they only one I remember that panned out is Grabovsky (Sergei K to a certain degree was at least known. You can put him in the panned out list If you want). I take all the compliments towards these secret picks with a grain of salt. In fairness, I take all selections with said grain of salt. Never get too excited, never get too low.

I never heard the term secret pick, is that another way of saying later rounds?

From what I am reading it appears he will be loaned out to a second division team in Sweden. Does this open the possibility for Montreal to swing a deal with his team to get him permi$$ion to play junior in Canada if he is selected in the import draft? We will see if he is selected on June 30.

Hard to guess, would a team want to bring him over since he'll take up an import and overage spot I believe, since he's a 19 year old Euro (haven't kept up with the CHL import rules), then would the Habs want him to stay over there or come over, and would he want to come over or stay?

Why hasn't he played in any national tournaments though?

Guess we'll see if he gets invited to Lake Placid tournament. I'd have to go back and look to see if he's ever been invited to any of Team Sweden's camps. He clearly had a good season in the J20 last year at least in terms of the numbers he put up.

 

[NotProkofievian]

Grant McCagg ‏@grantmccagg 8m8 minutes ago
Timmins on Vejdmo - "Our Swedish scout was never so excited about a pick like this since Lidstrom….he was scouting in Detroit then."

Hahaha, in that case, yes, definitely taking the booze cruise over to Stockholm a couple times this year.