People seem to be missing context when talking about scoring between Dahlin & Liljegren
-16 yo Dahlin was playing on the 3rd best SHL team (of 14) which scored the 4th most goals at 142
- 16 yo Liljegren was playing on the 4th worst SHL team (or 11th best of 14) which scored the 4th least (or 11th most) goals at 125
When he has some of the best SHL offensive numbers among all 16 year olds and among d-men, how are people so sure he doesn't have a high offensive ceiling?
Not to mention, actually watching the kid play on Wednesday, you could see he oozes offensive potential with his great shot, great passing, and unreal skating/mobility. The knock that he doesn't defer to forwards as much in the offensive zone is true to an extent. What I saw on Wednesday was a guy who started off making great passes with great vision in the o-zone but as the game wore on (and as plays continued to die on his teammates' sticks) he opted to shoot more than pass. And even still, as the d-man roaming the blueline, he managed to actually get the puck through bodies and on the net repeatedly and wasn't just listlessly wasting shots that missed the net.
Maybe I saw one good game or maybe my expectations were low with all the HF experts saying he has huge holes and will bust, but he was really impressive and frequently the best player on the ice in a game with several top 10 picks from 2017. He absolutely oozes sky high potential with some of his raw talents but obviously needs work.