I appreciate your breakdown, and agree with most of what you said. I have to disagree on Edvinsson tonight though. He made the type of mistakes that can cost games. You can’t miscue or have the puck slide off your stick in your own zone like that. Ok, once in a while it happens, but I saw like 4-5 of those tonight.
To be fair to him, he was also playing #1 minutes (last night) against Oshie, Kuznetsov, Ovechkin, etc. How many 19 year olds can do that without making a few mistakes??
Like I said though, his mistakes have been pretty normal for the most part. Think it was the first shift of the second period for example, he didn’t put enough juice on a simple cross ice pass, breaking out of his own zone. In other leagues, not a big deal. In the NHL it’s in your own net really fast. It didn’t cost him but could have, as it did lead to a turnover. A turnover he recovered from and retrieved the puck, making a good play.
There was also 2 or 3 occasions where he stepped up at the blue line and should’ve been burned but his reach saved him.
If you zero in and watch almost every top-end dman, you’ll see the same type of recoveries that save them multiple times a game. It’s one of the reasons they’re such great players. Pietrangelo every other shift throughout his career it seems. Doughty right behind him. Even when you break down Mo’s games, there’s a lot of mistakes that he covers up because he recovers so well.
Edvinsson thinks the game like all great Dmen do and he’s 100% physically capable. Like I said, there’s going to be some mistakes obviously. He’s 19. Those mistakes though, can’t be fixed in the AHL. They’re the growing pains all young dmen go through when they reach the NHL. Whether 23 or 19.
Those are the majority of his mistakes. His confidence is key for when those things happen and he doesn’t seem effected at all. Which is good. That would be the only real reason to have him play half a year (or so) in the AHL. To gain confidence while playing top minutes. He doesn’t seem to lack any confidence though. Another great sign honestly.
I’ve now watched him play 20-25 times and I’d tell people to think Aaron Ekblad. A player who’s overrated a little but still probably the best #2 in the NHL. Too many people put him in the category of the elite-elite, but he doesn’t have the ability to take a game over (so to speak).
So although Edvinsson has the attributes of the elite-elite…. The skill, the confidence, reads the ice incredibly well, has the ability to recover quickly AND the biggest one being….. when he’s on the ice, the play goes through him … meaning he’s not just making a pass and letting the forwards do their thing.. He’s making the first chip or pass, receiving the puck again, gaining the zone, making the right play in the o-zone, then becomes part of the O-zone setup and execution.
The great ones all do this. They put themselves in the right position for the forwards to know they’re part of the attack… it ends up being very natural. He did a lot of that last night. As he moves forward, his teammates will come to trust him more and more. Something the Wings have lacked for a long time until Mo last year. They haven’t had two dmen like this since Lidstrom and Rafalski.
When you think of pure #1 dmen, there’s only really a dozen or so. That’s what’s so special about Seider. He has all those elements in his game to effect the game like a Hedman, Doughty, etc. Ekblad isn’t in that club but he’s still a great dman. He’s just shade under that group and that’s what I see with Edvinsson’s skill set. If his offensive game takes another step above what we think, he’ll have a chance to be very special. He’s going to get his 40-50 points every year just because when he’s on the ice, things run through him, and he does put the puck on net in a variety of ways. If he becomes a 60+ point dman, he could end up in the special category.
Unfortunately for Edvinsson (we’re already seeing it) it’s only natural that he’s going to be compared almost every game to Mo. Although it’s fair in many ways, it’s not in others. He’s not the type who’s going to take your head off. That will be how many judge him and it’s not fair. He’s also a year younger than Mo was coming to the NHL. That’s a big year when you’re 19.
If I had to compare him to an NHL dman, I’d go with Ekblad. His game reminds me a lot of Ekblad’s game.
Both Johansson and Edvinsson will no doubt increase their O-Zome output over the next 2-3 years and settle in nicely. Both play with a ton of confidence and far above their age group when it comes to their transition game already. I’ve been surprised we haven’t seen more errors from both with their angles and gap control. We’ve seen a couple mishaps from Edvinsson that we see from young Swede dmen making the NA adjustments, but very few. I’ve seen none at all with Johansson. It’s like he’s been playing in NA for years already.
Johansson like I said last night, has ice in his veins at 21 years old. He’s only going to get better and better with more confidence in his offensive game. He really does remind me of a Ryan Suter at the same age. At least in his own zone and transitioning. Cam Fowler was a lot like that too. Two players nobody was sending anywhere after their first 5 games in the NHL. He doesn’t have that total game Edvinsson has, but he definitely has the wheels and smarts to become a fixture in the Top 4, for a long time.
With Seider, Edvinsson and Johannson, the Wings are going to be so quick transitioning over the next ten years, they’re going to be a force. That’s not even adding this kid Buium who’s playing at Denver University again this year. That kid also has a chance to be a weapon from the back end. He should have a big year in college this year, as he really came on the 2nd half last year as a freshman. Not sure he goes pro next year or the following year but there’s a good chance he walks right into the NHL when he does. He’s that physically gifted too.
Lots of good things coming in the next 2-3 years for the Wings.
