Five Ranger prospects in action as Swedish season starts

The Swedish Hockey League season opened on Saturday and that meant game action for five New York Rangers prospects

With the NHL season in limbo, New York Rangers fans are turning to Europe to get their hockey fix.  The Swedish Hockey League (SHL) commenced play on Saturday and future Blueshirt prospects were in action.

Frolunda 3,  HV71  0  (Karl Henriksson vs. Lias  Andersson)

Two prospects were in action with Karl Henriksson taking on Lias Andersson.  Neither prospect made it on the scoresheet, but Henriksson was on the winning side as Frolunda dominated HV71 3-0.

Henriksson played left wing and played 15:31 minutes and finished with three shots on goal.  He won 50% of his faceoffs.  Henriksson, 19,  was drafted in the second round of the 2019 draft.

Andersson had a hot preseason, but couldn’t score, with four shots on goal in 16:11 minutes of action.  Andersson’s faceoff winning percentage was 69.6%, best on the team.

Lulea 3, Farjestad 0 (Nils Lundkvist)

The Rangers’ top European prospect, defenseman Nils Lundkvist was in action for Lulea and he garnered an assist on the second Lulea goal scored by Niklas Olausson.   It was a power play goal.

Olausson put in the rebound of a blast from Lundkvist (#27).   Lundvist played 14:16 minutes, finished with seven shot attempts and five shots on goal.

Rogle 4, Linkoping 3 (Adam Edstrom)

This was one of the more interesting games for a Ranger prospect.   Right winger Adam Edstrom played only 2:06 after being ejected from the game after taking a five minute major for charging, 11 minutes into the first period.

The penalty came after Jarmo Karki took a high shot from Edstrom.  Karki was hurt, but he was able to return to the game.

Edstrom, 19, was drafted in the sixth round of the 2019 draft and is one of the biggest players in the prospect pool at 6’6″, 212 pounds.

Incidentally, former Ranger prospect Adam Tambellini plays for Rogle and finished with one goal and two assists.  He was drafted in 2013, but never got out of the AHL.

Skelleftea 5, Leksand 4 in OT (Calle Sjalin)

The last Ranger prospect in action was defenseman Calle Sjalin who notched a assist on the third Leksand goal . You don’t see much of Sjalin who got the secondary assist when he got the puck in deep to help set up the Leksand score.

Sjalin played 15:33 minutes and finished the game with two hits, 2 shot attempts and one shot on goal.   He was a fifth round pick in 2017 pick  and the 21-year old is in his first full season in the SHL.

Another former Ranger was in action for Leksand. Marek Hrivik had two assists and led all skaters with eight shots on goal.  Hrivik played 21 games for New York over two seasons from 2015-2017

No Ranger prospects will be in action until Tuesday when Calle Sjalin and Leksand play Malmo and  Thursday when Andersson and HV71 play Orebro.