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Meet Red Wings' Latest Steal - Mar. 9 2015 - Vol. 68 Issue 17-18 - Matt Larkin

AXEL HOLMSTROM PLAYS for the best team in the Swedish League and sits among the leaders in scoring by a teenager in the nation’s highest circuit. He was also the center on Sweden’s most dan¬gerous line at the world juniors and he can kill penalties, so of course the Detroit Red Wings drafted him in the seventh round last year, right?

Shocking but true. The franchise synonymous with late-round steals may have another on e in Skelleftea’s Holmstrom, who is not related to former Red Wing Tomas Holmstrom, but does remind Detroit brass of the fan favorite. “He’s super competitive,” said Red Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin. “He goes to the hard areas and the front of the net, but his skating needs work-it’s a lot of the same things people said about Tomas.”

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Axel Holmstrom jumped on the draft radar last season at the world under-18s. Playing on a line with William Nylander and Oskar Lindblom, Holm¬ strom registered 11 points in seven games, trailing only Nylander’s 16 points in the tourney as Sweden lost bronze to Canada. Nylander went early in the first round to Toronto, while Lindblom was tabbed by Philadelphia in the fifth.

But Holmstrom was still on the board when Detroit stepped up with the 196th pick overall. Sitting at home in the apart¬ ment he shared with Skelleftea teammate and fellow draft hopeful Sebastian Aho, Holm¬ strom went through a range of emotions that day, since only his named was called. “We both had a good chance to be drafted,” Holmstrom said. “Sebastian-a lot of people say he’s too small to play in the NHL but It hink he’s so clever that he can handle it. I was happy, but I was suffering with Sebastian, too. So I didn’t celebrate too hard.”

Martin was pleasantly surprised when he saw Holmstrom’s performance for Sweden in the summer, when the national team played exhibition games against Team USA and Finland in Lake Placid, N.Y And the fact the young center can play in all situations while us¬ing hockey sense and hands to create offense just seems tailor-made for the Red Wings orga¬nization. But that doesn’t mean Detroit will rush Holmstrom or fellow Swede Christoffer Ehn (a fourth-rounder in 2014 who also looked good at the world juniors) over to North America.

Martin loves that the new collective bargaining agree¬ment gives teams four years to assess European picks now instead of two before signing them, since players develop at different rates and Euros some¬times feel more comfortable on home soil. “I see them both as NHL prospects,” Martin said. “But if they want to develop over there, that’s great.”

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AXEL HOLMSTROM

Holmstrom did make the trek across the Atlantic for Detroit’s rookie camp in the summer and even that small taste lived up to the hype. After all, this is the franchise of Lidstrom, Zetterberg and many other Tre Kronor heroes. “The Red Wings are pretty much the most Swed¬ish team and the most popular NHL team in Sweden,” Holmstrom said. “It’s a big honor, of course.”

As for how the Red Wings got Holmstrom so late, Martin takes a diplomatic approach. It wasn’t just an individual skill such as skating that was holding the young center back from a higher slot, but the for¬mat of the draft itself. “Seven rounds goes awfully quick,” Martin said. “There are a lot of skilled players that go late and some that don’t get picked at all. Teams are basically picking seven guys each.”

Luckily for the Red Wings, Holmstrom seems to be one of those high-skill guys destined for more. And while Martin is humble, let’s pump Detroit’s tires for them: it takes front office talent to pick the best on-ice talent and the Wings have struck gold too many times for their draft history to be just luck.

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