Swedish 'Canes (Kahnberg and Nordgren)

I've always felt these two were underrated, but its amazing how little talk they get around these parts (aside from the Swedish board where there are a couple good threads on Kahnberg and some talk about Nordgren as well). Heck, Nordgren is not even listed on the 'Canes HF page and Kahnberg is way down on that list.

I'll spare the questions about their games - if you want to know, there is plenty on the Swedish board. But Kahnberg has an enormous lead in the Swedish scoring race, with 31 goals (Kallio is in second with a distant 20 goals) and a league-leading 46 points while Nordgren, although he's been slumping a bit, remains among the league leaders in points as well. I'd assume Kahnberg is nearly a lock to make the Swedish WC team and Nordgren probably has a good shot as well from what I've read.

Also, from everything I've read, these are players with fine technical skills (especially Kahnberg) and although not bruisers, they aren't tiny little European players whom you'd think would have a hard time translating their game to the NHL. As Huselius is proving, the transition can still be difficult even for a star, but the book has not been entirely written on him yet either.

It looks like Carolina might have a pair of ready-made young NHL'ers by next season or perhaps within two. I just find it a bit odd that somebody like Kahnberg, who is kicking so much tail in a league where guys like Huselius and Zeta were tremendously hyped before coming over, has received virtually no consideration at all in Top 50 lists and general all-around prospect talk in here.

So essentially, I'm using this post to start my Kahnberg-awareness campaign, yes.

 

And more power to you, honestly. I've had my eye on Magnus for a long time and he's going to be a player. Nordgren I haven't had that much information on, but Kahnberg has been on my radar for quite some time and i'm looking forward to seeing him come over and play for the Hurricanes. We need his goal scoring touch in the NHL right now!

 

Nordgren is also a very good player. Nice allaround game and isn't a stranger to scoring points either. Kinda reminds me of a Scott Pellerin (when he still was good) with less hitting and better positional game.

 

you mention the lack of attention on the hf board for these canes prospects-its hardly limited to those two. the entire canes prospect list is short of updates, some players havent been touched since they were drafted...3 years ago....for other teams.

 

And the reason to all that I believe is the lack of canes-only fans. There are not many who post on the canes board and most or at least some of them don't hold the canes as their #1 team.

 

The Canes are lucky to have Kahnberg, don't trade him away, I think he will be a good offensive player in the NHL.

 

maybe fair enough, but i think going an entire year without updating any propsects
(between 2002 and 2003) is a disservice to anyone who likes prospects in general. i look at other teams prospects for fun, and assume other people do the same. if you went looking at the canes to see what prospects they have for just the sake of research and knowledge, you not getting an accurate representation here. why does someone need to be a canes-only fan to make use of prospect boards? i think half the rumours i see on the boards are based off the knowledge people get from the hf pages referring to OTHER teams prospects, as well as there own. fwiw, there are a bunch of faithful canes fans on their board, sure not as many as on the nuck or nyr boards, but to use that as a reason to neglect their prospects on the hf page disrespects the fans who do spend a lot of time here. im a whaler/ cane for life, so im used to the criticism of not having enough people on my side - but a site dedicated to the prospects of the nhl should make an effort for all teams. if people want to fleece us in their trade rumours-at least theyll have an idea of what their talking about. i live in CO now, so i list the avs after the canes in my favorite teams section....but make no mistake the canes are my team. should i only know about the canes? as a fan of the game, i feel like i know a lot about every team in the league, like many fans on this board. as a moderator of this site, im suprised about your attitude towards this, why does it matter if fans like more than one team? the canes fans on their board may watch other teams and be from a variety of regions-but some are among the most knowledgable ive seen on this website....worthy of the same info other teams get.

 

I think the big story is that the Canes fans feel slighted a bit. I really have no idea when the last time the HF boards has changed it's team rankings was, and for Carolina to be in 29th, even though we know our system isn't as loaded a lot of others, is really pushing it. This really turns a lot of the teams fans off as to possibly being interested in updating for the Canes part of the site. As for Canes fan loyalty... there's only one or two that I can think of where the Canes aren't the #1 team for us. Quite a few of us follow other teams closely, but to us the Whaler/Cane franchise is our franchise.

Anyway... I'm not sure why Kahnberg hasn't gotten his shot at the NHL already being that he's a consistent player in Sweden and has shown a good scoring touch even before this breakout year.
Nordgren I don't know much about (heck, he's not even listed on the site), but he sounds kinda like a slightly smaller Swedish version of Cole (about the same age too).

 

Kahnberg is currently ranked #9 on the EP prospect ranking and is having a great year as you know.
Nordgren I think could is more ready for the NHL actually. He is a better skater than Kahnberg, one year older and better defensively. I like them both and if there is no lock-out next season.. I could see them surprise a lot people and make the Canes out of camp.