Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Elmer Soderblom's Growth

08/14/2022 at 7:36am EDT

from Bob Duff of Detroit Hockey Now,

Detroit Red Wings prospect Elmer Soderblom is what hockey scouts like to call a late bloomer. Selected in the sixth round of the 2019 NHL entry draft at 149th overall, Soderblom today stands out in the crowd amongst the club’s top NHL hopefuls – both literally and figuratively.

At 6-foot-8 and 249 pounds, it’s hard not to notice Soderblom. After a 21-goal season for Frolunda in the SHL, it’s difficult to contain the excitement of what might lay ahead for the 21-year-old Swede.

“He’s a mountain,” fellow Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson, his teammate at Frolunda, said of Soderblom. “He likes to score goals. He’s a good goal-scorer, a great protector of the puck. He’s a great skater.

“In general he’s had tremendous development last year. When you see him here for the first time you’re going to recognize him. He’s a really great player.”...

When it comes to tapping into Soderblom’s potential, it might be wise for everyone to tap the brakes. History shows that Soderblom doesn’t take steps up the hockey ladder in one giant leap. He tends to be more about making baby steps into every level of the game.

“He’s kind of got a profile that is a bit all over,” explained NHL prospect expert Byron Bader of HockeyProspecting.com. “He’s kind of up and down, which is not very common.”

The evidence is backing up this assessment. At the U16 level in Sweden, Soderblom’s goal production jumped from two in his first season to 23 in his second year. Moving to U18, he went from zero goals to 15 in consecutive campaigns. At the U20 level, Soderblom’s season-by-season goal output was 0-9-29. Finally, in the senior SHL, Sweden’s top level, Soderblom’s three-season goal output was 0-3-21.

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