1000 words

We'll be going over who the New England Wolfpack selected in the S55 Entry Draft a couple of days ago. In total, 5 players were selected with 3 of them being wingers and two of them defensemen. and without further ado, here are they are.


Alexander Oscarsson, RW @Zema
SMJHL Draft: 21st OA
SHL Draft: 8th OA
Alex was a slow riser in this draft class. After getting picked 21st overall in the SMJHL Entry draft by the Maine Timber, he would see his stock gradually rise throughout the season. By the time the season ended (prematurely) for the wooden logs from Portland, he was a consensus 1st round pick according to the experts. 18 points in 50 games with consistent 2nd line minutes and a ton of powerplay time would be the reasoning for him being talked about. Apparently he also did well enough in the draft interviews to be considered a consensus top 10 pick in the mock drafts leading up to it. The skilled playmaking winger ended up rising 13 spots from his SMJHL draft when the New England Wolfpack locked him in at 8th with their first pick of the draft.


Guðmundur Kristjánsson, RW @Fluw
SMJHL Draft: 5th OA
SHL Draft: 11th OA
Guðmundur saw himself get picked 5th overall by the Colorado Raptors in the previous SMJHL draft. But after an unremarkable season with only 2 goals to his name, his stock fell. He wasn’t getting a ton of playing time in for the dinos from Denver, which could definitely lead to his rather mediocre statline. When talking to the scouts around the league however many agreed on the fact that his overall play held a really good level throughout the season. They also believe that he won’t be as sheltered by the coaches now when he has had a season to get used to the league. The Icelandic beauty will show his worth when he’ll be trusted upon to shine.



 Ryan Rieley, LW @Brandon
SMJHL Draft: 34th OA
SHL Draft: 15th OA
Ryan saw himself rise 19 spots from when he was taken by the Colorado Raptors in the 4th round of the SMJHL draft. Sadly for the Raptors, they were forced to left him off the protected list they submitted ahead of the expansion draft and Rieley saw himself have to move to Canada. Quebec City Citadells are his new team, and here he will get plenty of room to prove himself. Bound for a 1st or 2nd line roll on his new team, the hard hitting powerforward will be looked on to lead a very young Citadells team. Based on his previous season, he most certainly can. His 8 goals was 8th best in the league amongst rookies, and his incredible 99 hits was 4th amongst rookies. He was also very solid in his all around play, being tasked with taking a ton of faceoffs despite him being a natural winger. New England saw what they wanted out of him during the season, and will look on him to be a strong physical presence with a scoring touch when reaching the big leagues in a few seasons.



Leonids Balzams, RD @Cyanide
SMJHL Draft: -
SHL Draft: 29th OA
From unknown commodity to a 2nd round pick, this former St. Louis player has had a meteoric rise through the ranks. Not joining the league until after the draft, he got to sign with the Scarecrows and still played in all of their games. And what a way he did it. 12 assists was 15th amongst rookies, and he also saw himself 5th in takeaways and 6th in hits. An impressive feat for someone who wasn’t even considered for the SMJHL draft. His first and only season with St. Louis was a fine one, but once again a NEW pup got picked up in the Expansion draft. This time however it was Nevada who ends up with the prize. Leonids will gain a major role here as they are looking to build something great within a few years. After that project is done, he can see himself slot very nicely onto the New England D-core with his 6ft 3in and 210 lbs frame.



Hennesey-Gallchobhar O'McGuiness, LD @the_paytonium
SMJHL Draft: 36th OA
SHL Draft: 40th OA
One of two pups who dropped in draft position, it shouldn’t worry Hennesey too much. The Maine Timber defenseman saw himself shift between the 2nd and 3rd pairing throughout the season while having a completely unremarkable season stat wise. The one stat to point out heavily is his low amount of takeaways. He only gave the puck over 7 times during the season, which is well above average for rookies, especially if you look at defensemen. There were however some issues being reported about his work ethic, many people thinking he slacked off doing it when in reality he spent his time out of sight from the rest of the team training on his own. Hennesey has apparently also spent a ton of time in the off season working out to better himself for next season. With the D-core on Maine Timber staying completely unchanged since the end of last season, he won’t likely see his role increase behind a stacked roster. With Bjerg (1st OA), Baranov (16th OA), Sondergaard (1st OA last draft) and Captain Valentin Kalashnikov are ahead of him in the picking order, he will likely stay put where he is until some of the older guys start dropping out. For New England, this pick has low risk high reward written all over it.

Theodor Larsson


SMJHL

Team: Maine
Drafted: 21st OA
By: Maine Timber
Games played: 228
Goals: 49
Assists: 79
Points: 138
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Playoffs
Games played: 41
Goals: 5
Assists: 17
Points: 22



SHL

Team: San Francisco Pride
Drafted: 8th OA
By: New England Wolfpack
Games played: 195
Goals: 15
Assists: 49
Points: 64

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Playoffs
Games played: 11
Goals: 1
Assists: 4
Points: 5



Achievements/History

S53 WJC Silver
S54 Team Sweden WJC GM
S55 Assistant Captain of Maine Timber
S56-S57 Captain of Maine Timber
S57-S59 New England Co-GM
S57 WJC Silver
S59 Traded to San Francisco Pride
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RIP Dangel. See you on the other side, brother