SWE: Youth movement in Frolunda Juniors

Frolunda's junior team has been by far the most successful in Swedish junior hockey this millennia, with six straight appearances in the finals and four championship wins. This season though, they are for once not the favourites for the title.

The reason why many pundits predict doom and gloom this season for the Frolunda junior team is due to the loss of a talented core of players. The dynamic `86-born trio of: Kirill Starkov, Morten Madsen and Robin Figren, all chose to go the CHL route. So they will leave their homeland for the remaining years of their junior eligibility, just as former Frolunda captain Fredrik Pettersson did last year.

"We have twelve guys in the roster this year with a 1989 birth date or younger", says Emil Olsén, manager of junior hockey operations in Frolunda.

"But at the same time it's an incredibly talented bunch of guys. They have experience from international games and the skill is in them, so we're not looking at this as a rebuilding year per se", Olsén continues.

The talented young guns Olsén are referring to are among others, the offensively very gifted Dane Mikkel Bodker, who starred for his country at the U18' WJC at the tender age of 15 in 2005. The other is smart pivot Joakim Andersson, who played at the U18's last season and is generally considered number three in this year's Swedish draft class, behind Mikael Backlund and Oscar Moller. Lars Eller, an all-round skilled Danish pivot, is another player that Olsén makes a pitch for,

"Eller have played a few preseason games with the Frolunda senior team and handled himself quite well against men. He's a very smart and skilled player with no obvious weaknesses".

Yet another Frolunda youngster to keep an eye on in the Swedish junior league this season will be centre Anton Gustafsson, who carries a 1990 birth date. Gustafsson is the son of Swedish national team head coach and former Washington Capital player Bengt-Ake Gustafsson. Anton has managed to secure a roster spot in his rookie season with Frolunda.

"Anton Gustafsson has taken a huge leap during the preseason and has been progressing nicely. In terms of playing style, he reminds a lot of his father as they have the same type of skating and puckhandling skills", says Emil Olsén.

Also noteworthy, is the overall raised standard of play among the teams in the Swedish junior league. During the preseason, junior teams often played exhibition games against teams from the Swedish third league, which is an equivalent level to bottom feeding teams of the ECHL or UHL teams, and more often than not came out on top.

"I'd say that the top teams of the Swedish junior league are about on par with the worst Allsvenskan ones (Swedish second league) and most of teams could beat a division one (Swedish third league)", Emil Olsén comments.

Given the talent, albeit younger than usual, there is no reason not to expect Frolunda to be among the top teams in the Swedish junior league this season. One should also expect the likes of Joakim Andersson, Simon Hjalmarsson, defenseman Jens Hellgren and Lars Eller, to be picked fairly high in the 2007 draft. Mikkel Bodker and Anton Gustafsson will have to wait for their chance until the following year in 2008.