LD Tobias Björnfot - Djurgårdens IF, SWE JRs (2019, 22nd, LAK)

Kcb12345

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Jun 6, 2017
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18 year olds straight out of the draft picked at #22 just don't do this. Not unless you are Tobias Bjornfot. He continues to draw praise. "Still Amazing", Could be the steal of the 1st rd.



Heinola and Harley

A few of these mid-late round dmen seem are showing early signs of being huge steals. Awesome to see, especially this soon
 
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LAKings88

First round fodder
Dec 4, 2006
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Breaking Björnfot in this year may actually be good for the team overall.

Anderson, Durzi, and Clague should be pushing for spots next year. That’s a lot of youth coming in.
 
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wetcoast

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Breaking Björnfot in this year may actually be good for the team overall.

Anderson, Durzi, and Clague should be pushing for spots next year. That’s a lot of youth coming in.

Don't forget their upcoming lottery pick and they have some excellent forward prospects as well.

Might still be a long season for King fans though.
 
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Skinnyjimmy08

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Bottom line is he makes the team better when he plays... and as weird as it sounds, he makes DD better and more comfortable. As long as that keeps happening, he isn't going anywhere.

Plus also you know DD is telling coaches/management to keep Bjornfot where he is(and also basically telling the whole world in that interview lol)
 
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Mrb1p

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Dec 10, 2011
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Bottom line is he makes the team better when he plays... and as weird as it sounds, he makes DD better and more comfortable. As long as that keeps happening, he isn't going anywhere.

Plus also you know DD is telling coaches/management to keep him Bjornfot where he is(and also basically telling the whole world in that interview lol)
Gotta feel good to play with actual talent, no matter their age.
 

Mats26

Vet Movement - What's the Maatta?
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Kings desperately needed to find a partner for Drew for this rebuild to work. You can sense the disappointment at the draft table when Bowen Byram went off the board. As much as Kings fans are excited about Björnfot , you can bet the Kings' brass are elated. Let's hope they take the right route in his development.
 

The Winter Soldier

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I understand the point, but Chytil was picked 21st in 2017, and made the team right away. Heinola picked 20th just made the Jets.
Heinola and Harley

I think the first point is he is 18 years old, and he is a D man. This is hard enough to make the NHL right out of the draft. But the 2nd point is more striking.

He has been playing with Doughty. There are few 18 year old D men, right out of the draft, that make it to the first pairing as a 18 year old. If he sticks and if this is where he is going to play as he did in the preseason. Being picked #22 OA, makes it even more noteworthy to me, what tremendous value the Kings got with this pick.

Potential home run pick here for an expiring contract basically in Muzzin.
 
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Raccoon Jesus

Todd McLellan is an inside agent
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Gotta feel good to play with actual talent, no matter their age.

Yeah, especially in recent years, Drew has played with guys that are good, but mostly in over their head. After 2012, he got rookie Muzzin, who was a ticking time bomb until 2014-2016. After that? The corpse of Rob Scuderi, Mcnabb, Forbort--all decent players but very limited in such a way that Drew just gets doubled all over the ice. Has to be nice playing with a "thinker" just like himself. Their reads are uncanny, I've never seen someone play off Drew so well, even Muzzin. Hell, Drew even often had to hold the puck an extra second or two while Muzzin's clompy feet got him into a better position, as good as Jake is. With Bjornfot, they're just touch passes galore and one of the two is off to the races.
 

The Winter Soldier

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The praise keeps coming for Tobias' eye opening camp. McLellan is a fan.

It’s unclear how long 2019 first-round pick Tobias Bjornfot will continue to stick around with the Kings (because Bjornfot is only 18, he can play up to nine NHL games this season without it counting as a year of service time on his entry-level contract), but his expectation-exceeding performance in camp has him on track to potentially make an immediate NHL debut. For all of Bjornfot’s physical tools, another trait has stood out to McLellan: “Incredible poise. Very few errors or mistakes,” McLellan added. “Positionally-sound. Unfazed when things go wrong … A lot of players at that age, you lose them for a little while and they try to make up for it. Tobi just regroups.”
 

grentthealien

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How good was his camp? As an outsider I honestly wasn’t expecting him to get NHL action this soon. It’s interesting that the 8th and 9th D-men selected in the 2019 draft will see NHL ice first.
 

Frolov 6'3

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Despite a strong pre season, it also depends how strong the blueline is.

After being one of the best for years, LA’s blueline is not as good as used to be.
 

Raccoon Jesus

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How good was his camp? As an outsider I honestly wasn’t expecting him to get NHL action this soon. It’s interesting that the 8th and 9th D-men selected in the 2019 draft will see NHL ice first.

Absolutely phenomenal.

There's a reason he's playing with Doughty. He didn't just make the team, he's arguably our 2nd best d-man already. I know, low bar, but Martinez isn't a slouch.

If he weren't that good, it would be easy to shelter him, but there's no reason to.
 
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KingsHockey24

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How good was his camp? As an outsider I honestly wasn’t expecting him to get NHL action this soon. It’s interesting that the 8th and 9th D-men selected in the 2019 draft will see NHL ice first.
He's probably our 2nd best defensemen based on the preseason.

Great poise and makes some fancy plays as well.
 

Islcey

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Jun 18, 2018
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Can't wait! Most anticipated debut for a Kings prospect for me in a while. I don't know, just have had a great feeling about him since he was drafted just a short time ago!
 

Cygnusx1018

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I think the first point is he is 18 years old, and he is a D man. This is hard enough to make the NHL right out of the draft. But the 2nd point is more striking.

He has been playing with Doughty. There are few 18 year old D men, right out of the draft, that make it to the first pairing as a 18 year old. If he sticks and if this is where he is going to play as he did in the preseason. Being picked #22 OA, makes it even more noteworthy to me, what tremendous value the Kings got with this pick.

Potential home run pick here for an expiring contract basically in Muzzin.
Heinola is also an 18 year old dman
 
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wetcoast

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Trial by fire--first assignment tonight will be McDavid!


He was okay tonight but I'm not sure if he is really ready and if LA wants to burn a year on his ECL.

Man LA needs to get one of those top Canadians in the 20 draft to turn their fortunes around.

Some serious development from their prospects should help as well.
 

Prntscrn

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He was okay tonight but I'm not sure if he is really ready and if LA wants to burn a year on his ECL.

Man LA needs to get one of those top Canadians in the 20 draft to turn their fortunes around.

Some serious development from their prospects should help as well.

Djurgården could probably use him next to Hultström.
 
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Raccoon Jesus

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He was okay tonight but I'm not sure if he is really ready and if LA wants to burn a year on his ECL.

Man LA needs to get one of those top Canadians in the 20 draft to turn their fortunes around.

Some serious development from their prospects should help as well.


I mean, he faced probably the two most fearsome guys possible in the first night of his NHL career after 8 days off while the Oilers are property warmed up. And McDavid looks like he's found yet another level, so...

Looked like a kid in his first NHL game is all.

He might very well go back, but I'm not going to dumpster him over one night vs. McDavid, there's gonna be a lot of people have it worse vs. him this year. He's never seen anything like that before. Give him a few more games to settle in before jumping to the 'well, is he really ready?' conclusion, given how much he's killed it up until this point.

Edit: McLellan making an important point about it as well:

"McLellan, on Tobias Bjornfot:
I think he was fine. You could see him make a lot of plays. His rounds are on the major league, and when 97’s coming at you that fast, you don’t get to practice that at all anywhere in Sweden, anywhere in junior, or anywhere in training camp. That’s just the way it is, so he’ll be better for it next time. He wasn’t the only one that had trouble handling his speed. We had some veteran players out there that had trouble with him, and after me there’s going to be 30 other coaches that come in and answer the question in the same way I just did."

IE there's nowhere else he's going to get conditioned to situations like last night except to be in situations like last night.
 
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wetcoast

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I mean, he faced probably the two most fearsome guys possible in the first night of his NHL career after 8 days off while the Oilers are property warmed up. And McDavid looks like he's found yet another level, so...

Looked like a kid in his first NHL game is all.

He might very well go back, but I'm not going to dumpster him over one night vs. McDavid, there's gonna be a lot of people have it worse vs. him this year. He's never seen anything like that before. Give him a few more games to settle in before jumping to the 'well, is he really ready?' conclusion, given how much he's killed it up until this point.

Edit: McLellan making an important point about it as well:

"McLellan, on Tobias Bjornfot:
I think he was fine. You could see him make a lot of plays. His rounds are on the major league, and when 97’s coming at you that fast, you don’t get to practice that at all anywhere in Sweden, anywhere in junior, or anywhere in training camp. That’s just the way it is, so he’ll be better for it next time. He wasn’t the only one that had trouble handling his speed. We had some veteran players out there that had trouble with him, and after me there’s going to be 30 other coaches that come in and answer the question in the same way I just did."

IE there's nowhere else he's going to get conditioned to situations like last night except to be in situations like last night.


It will be something to watch forsure.
 

Raccoon Jesus

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It will be something to watch forsure.

Absolutely, and it will also be interesting to see how he responds to a less-wide-open, more-physically-intense matchup in Calgary, especially when his partner is likely to be held as a prisoner of war :laugh:
 

wetcoast

Registered User
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Absolutely, and it will also be interesting to see how he responds to a less-wide-open, more-physically-intense matchup in Calgary, especially when his partner is likely to be held as a prisoner of war :laugh:


Calgary looks pretty sharp this year.
 

wetcoast

Registered User
Nov 20, 2018
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No doubt.

I guess my qualm is I'm not sure sending him back to Sweden helps anything. I'd rather have him play 40 games here than there, closely watched by development, getting used to NA ice.


Maybe it's hard to tell.

Myself I'd rather have my prospects playing big MPG in all situations rather than sitting in the press box for half the season.
 

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