We're not bragging, but we were among the first places that reported about Fabian Brunnstrom, the 23 year old Swedish enigma/wonderkid with a Youtube highlight video (with now over 40,000 hits). The Hockey News called him the next Daniel Alfreddson. Though on many teams' radar, Brunnstrom was never drafted to the NHL and too old to be drafted in the entry draft so he is free to select whatever team he wanted to join.
He visited a couple NHL clubs this spring but seemed to have the most intrest in Vancouver, Detroit, Montreal, Dallas and Toronto....Vancouver was the favorite, but reportedly Brunnstrom was not pleased with the uncertainty when they fired GM Dave Nonis. Detroit with plenty of Swedes and rich markets like Montreal and Toronto figured to out-bid about anyone.
But the choice is apparantely in and it's Dallas. With guys like Jere Lehtinen and Niklas Hagman, Brunnstrom will feel comfortable. With skill centers like Mikey Ribs and Brad Richards, he'll have support.
It'll be interesting to see how his rookie campaign goes. Brunnstrom is arguably going to be the most famous new face in the league next season (depending how you feel about rookie Steven Stamkos) and FB will certaintly be the most touted and hype....It'll be interesting to see if he can live up to it.
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2 comments:
1) If he signs, could he play now?? The Stars could use a good Swede of their own against the Stockholm Redwings
Faux, I'm pretty sure the NHL freezes signings at the trading deadline (see the whole Peter Forsberg will he/won't he come back drama).
But you're right, it would have been interesting if Brunnstrom did step right into the lineup like junior player ATO's do at the AHL level.
Then again, there's the matter that the Swedish team didn't tap Brunnstrom for their WHC squad but apparantely that was political as their brass supposedly wasn't too impressed by FB being more interested in shopping himself to NHL teams than staying in country and readying himself for that tournament.
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