Vancouver Canucks Messageboard

Per wrote: I'd also love to see Alex Sundström in a Canucks uniform, but alas - his knee injury seems to have prevented him from reaching his full potential.

Alexander Sundström was considered to be at least as talented as his dad as a junior, and half a year before the draft he was ranked fifth among European skaters in his draft year. Sadly, he only played twelve games that season due to a knee injury, an dwhen the draft came he was passed over till the Devils gambled on him with their last pick. Nothing ever came of that. Instead his been buried as a fourth line centre for Brynäs in the SEL.

This guy was a PPG player as a junior, but has only scored 33 points (14+19) in 188 SEL games.
http://www.eliteprospects.com/player.php?player=2019

He's a quite competent two way centre, but no fourth liner is ever going to make it to the NHL as they are only interested in our top talent; grunts are recruited locally.

Anyway, I think he has made a smart career move. As his contract expired, rather than renewing it he chose to accept an offer from a second tier league team instead of staying on in Brynäs. He's now getting top minutes with Mora, a borderline SEL team, that played in the SEL from 2004-2008 and are a constant contender for promotion. He's a top six player for them, is one of their two main faceoff guys and with 9 points (4+5) in 12 games he is tied for second in team scoring.

So yes, he took a pay cut and stepped out of the limelight, but he is getting more ice time, gets to play a more offensive game, and if teh team is promoted he'll be back in the SEL but now playing top line minutes rather than being a shutdown guy. And even if they do not get promoted, he gets to showcase his scoring abilities, and may be offered a more interesting job on some SEL team. In a recent interview he admitted that he still dreams of making it to the NHL, and I think in that perspective he certainly did the right thing. Actually, he probably should have done it sooner, because Brynäs using him on the fourth line has not allowed him to develop the way he could have done in a more offensive role.



Oh, and as Mora were promoted in 2004, they played in the SEL during the glorious 2004/05 lockout season! Rather cleverly they signed Marcel Hossa, and he must have worked the phones, because later the whole fricking Slovak national team seemed to join them; Marion Hossa, Skrbek, Pavlikosky, Nagy... and they also had Horcoff and Cleary on the team!

The Mora fans must have pinched themselves.. One minute they're in a god damned second tier league, the next every other player is an international star and NHL regular...

Missed the playoffs though, as pretty much every team in the SEL had at least a half dozen (if not more) NHL players the bar was raised quite a bit.

The Vikings were all kinds of awesome. It's a damned shame what a cultural downward spiral that region has experienced since they went the way of the Dodo.

We'd no doubt have won the Cup last year if it weren't for all the damned Scandinavians....

Per,

It seems many of these so called Scandinavians are in fact Candanadians. What is with the Vikings and the Chinese coming to Canada to have babies?

dhabums wrote:Per,

It seems many of these so called Scandinavians are in fact Candanadians. What is with the Vikings and the Chinese coming to Canada to have babies?

Can't speak for the Chinese, but it seems there is a lack of good hockey players in Canada*, so they bring over as many as they can from Sweden and to some extent Finland. Well, the players need to have something to do between games, and so you get a bunch of Steens, Sundströms, Näslunds, Sedins and whatnot who happen to be born in Canada. They usually go back to Sweden to go to school and learn how to play hockey though.

* probably because they have exported most of their own to the US.

Per wrote:

dhabums wrote:Per,

It seems many of these so called Scandinavians are in fact Candanadians. What is with the Vikings and the Chinese coming to Canada to have babies?

Can't speak for the Chinese, but it seems there is a lack of good hockey players in Canada*, so they bring over as many as they can from Sweden and to some extent Finland. Well, the players need to have something to do between games, and so you get a bunch of Steens, Sundströms, Näslunds, Sedins and whatnot who happen to be born in Canada. They usually go back to Sweden to go to school and learn how to play hockey though.

* probably because they have exported most of their own to the US.

I see. We did have a lack of bad drivers in Canada so many your theory can be applied elsewhere.

dbr wrote:Hmm, and even more compelling trend is that the following 14 skaters have 51 points: Henrik, Daniel, Higgins, Burrows, Hodgson, Samuelsson, Malhotra, Hansen, Kesler, Lapierre, Weise, Ebbett, Booth, Volpatti.. whereas these eight players have just sixteen points: Salo, Edler, Ballard, Hamhuis, Bieksa, Tanev, Alberts, Sulzer.

This team needs more forwards!

Actually, no. It's not more compelling. Forwards as a group have averaged 3.6 points per player, ie far less than Scandinavians as a group. And D-men as a group have averaged two points per player, which is well above the 1.75 points per player that the Canadian Canucks have amassed so far.

In fact, Scandinavian D-men as a group (Sami & Edler) have scored 6.5 points per player, whereas Canadian forwards (Burr, CoHo, Manny, Lapdog, Weise, Ebbet & Volpatti) have scored a mere 2.1.

So... I just don't see how your stats would be more compelling.

Guess what it really boils down to is that this team needs secondary scoring! And badly so!

So far there are only six players with at least five points:

Daniel 12
Hank 11
Salo 7
Edler 6
Higgs 5
Burr 5

CoHo and Manny (and Samuelsson) have 3 and the rest even less.

We cannot afford to be a one line team. A lot of the success last year came from Kesler's line being a viable threat, forcing the opponents to split their focus and just not concentrate on shutting down the twins.

We've sorely missed Kesler, and hopefully now that he is back we can again get two goal scoring lines, and the nthe team will start winning again. Mark my word.

Per wrote:Actually, no. It's not more compelling. Forwards as a group have averaged 3.6 points per player, ie far less than Scandinavians as a group. And D-men as a group have averaged two points per player, which is well above the 1.75 points per player that the Canadian Canucks have amassed so far.

In fact, Scandinavian D-men as a group (Sami & Edler) have scored 6.5 points per player, whereas Canadian forwards (Burr, CoHo, Manny, Lapdog, Weise, Ebbet & Volpatti) have scored a mere 2.1.

So... I just don't see how your stats would be more compelling.

I'll just go ahead and assume your humourless response to my attempt to poke fun at your 'logic' is in fact a witty post intended to extend the joke that's gone over my head.

Per wrote:We cannot afford to be a one line team. A lot of the success last year came from Kesler's line being a viable threat, forcing the opponents to split their focus and just not concentrate on shutting down the twins.

We've sorely missed Kesler, and hopefully now that he is back we can again get two goal scoring lines, and the nthe team will start winning again. Mark my word.

So really we needed one American.

So really we needed one American.

Per the Patriot. I enjoy your views even when they are through steaming piles of meat balls.