Prospect Update: European Report
With October now behind us, we take a look back at how the Senators' European prospects have performed this month
Andreas Englund:
Ottawa's second round pick from this year's draft has been playing for Djurgarden of the Swedish Hockey League (formerly known as the Swedish Elite League). He is second on his team in penalty minutes with 22 minutes through 18 games, but they are slightly inflated due to a misconduct penalty he took for a hit to the head in the second game of the season. Englund is first among defencemen in hits, and has recorded one goal and two assists so far while averaging about 15 minutes in ice time per game. He scored his first SHL goal back on October 25th against Lulea, and the Djurgarden twitter account was pretty excited:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Måååååål! 1-0 till Djurgården mot Luleå på Hovet. Målskytt: Andreas Englund, hans första mål i SHL någonsin. Tid: 54 sekunder in i period 2.</p>— Djurgården Hockey (@difhockeyse) <a href="https://twitter.com/difhockeyse/status/526024811819307008">October 25, 2014</a></blockquote>
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I'm happy to see that GOAAALLLL!!! calls look exciting in all languages. Hopefully Englund can keep playing a solid defensive minded game and develop into the shutdown defenceman we need.
Mikael Wikstrand:
Wikstrand has earned the trust of his Frolunda (SHL) coaches. The defenceman has consistently logged the most ice time on the team at over 21 minutes a night. He went down with a hip injury in a game back on October 24th, and hasn't been back since. He has put up two goals and two assists in 13 games so far. Wikstrand was invited to join the "Tre Kronor" (Swedish National Team) in the Karjala tournament. The Karjala tournament features teams from Finland, Czech Republic, Russia, and Sweden. Wikstrand was quoted as saying that it was a "tough decision" to turn down the national team, which could mean that he is close to returning. Hopefully he will be back on the ice and get back to logging big minutes for Frolunda soon.
Marcus Hogberg:
Hogberg also plays in the Swedish Hockey League, but for Linkoping. He is currently the backup goaltender, but has appeared in seven of the first 18 games of the season. He was yanked in a game back on October 21 after allowing four goals on 26 shots, and he hasn't seen any action since. It also doesn't help Hogberg's chances of getting back out there when their other goalie has recorded shutouts in three of his past five starts. He is holding a save percentage of .900 and a goals against average of 3.01. As with both the Sens and the B-Sens, he is facing a ton of shots on a nightly basis (just over 30 shots per 60 minutes). Hogberg will hopefully get another chance in the near future to earn some more starts to improve on his 3-2-0 record.
