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GOTHENBURG, Sweden — This time a year ago, Pierre Johnson insisted on talking about another player in a phone call that was supposed to be about Axel Sandin Pellikka.
Johnson, who served as an assistant coach for Sandin Perika with both Skellefteå in the SHL and Team Sweden in the world juniors, has often talked about the potential first-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings. But Skellefteå had another player who would have been with him on the Under-20 national team had he not broken his ankle before the tournament, and Johnson felt that player should have shined more. Ta.
That player was Elias Salomonson, who was just selected by the Winnipeg Jets at No. 55 in the second round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
And what Salomonsson was doing as an 18-year-old in the SHL before his injury (an injury that sidelined him from mid-November to mid-February) was serious.
“At Frolunda you had Rasmus Dahlin, you had Lucas Raymond. I mean, we saw you go from a good player to a really good player, but you don’t go from an average player to a really good player. I mean, Salomonsson, in my eyes, he was a good, average player. But he went from being average to almost dominant this fall. ” Johnson said.
“He was really good until he got injured. I would say he was an unbelievable person. He was our best D. Next year will be interesting for the U-20s with the D that Sweden has. I think it will be. I mean, if you have (Matthias) Haverid, Salomonsson, Sandin Pelica and (Tom) Wilander, it will be a really good D-side.”
A year later, when Johnson was read those words back to him and asked if they were still true about 19-year-old Salomonsson, who is finally ready to play at the World Juniors and is still one of Skellefteå’s players. Don’t hesitate, he wasn’t.
“He’s still very good,” Johnson insisted. “He’s an impact player. When he’s on the ice, you’ll see him. He’s a big boy and he’s had a great summer working on his physicality, getting stronger and working on his endurance. He’s on the ice. He looks bigger, stronger and still athletic. He’s had a great season so far. He’s a big player for us.”
In separate calls in recent weeks, Skellefteå head coach Robert Ohlsson and general manager Eric Forssell also backed him.
“Salomonsson is a little bit behind Axel, but they’re both very good,” Forssell said. “He’s come a long way. The year before his draft year was very, very good. But his draft year, he had some erratic practices and games due to minor injuries and illnesses and all sorts of other things.” But then, when he came to the men’s team on a regular basis, for some people his draft year meant he didn’t get to play as much, which made him stay at the club longer. We didn’t know as much about him as we did, because we knew what he could do. And right after the draft last season, he got off to a really, really, really good start.”
Ohlsson said Salomonson’s development “just picked up and took off” after the draft.
“He didn’t take a step that summer. I think he took two or three steps that summer. He was always gifted, but something happened to him. When he got on the ice, he was super. , super fast, super mobile and really good at joining the rush. The important thing about him is being able to outwit the opponent, being able to shake him off and join the rush,” said Ohlsson. said. “But he also showed that he played with real determination, both on the wall and in front of the net. He was really, really good in the one-on-one part.”
His efforts were rewarded on Boxing Day when Team Sweden opened the 2024 World Juniors on its home ice, pairing him with Canucks prospect Elias Pettersson for the first time on the team. He was also named one of the team’s alternate captains. He was among the five selected to start when the puck dropped on Sweden’s first shift of the tournament.
However, 25 seconds into his first shift, he was given a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for boarding Latvia’s Emils Bekakutins. Then came the news of a one-game suspension (he was ejected at 7:35 p.m. in the opening game, so he was effectively suspended for two games), and the start of his already delayed World Junior experience began in earnest. The start was delayed even further.
So it was more of a relief than anything else when he stood in the tunnel at the Scandinavian Games on Friday, finally making his official world junior debut with a 2-0 win over Canada. It was the third time in his career that he had been suspended (the first was for the Under-18 World Championships, which was factored into the IIHF’s decision; the second was for this season’s SHL ). However, this was really painful due to the wait time.
“It was a long two days here,” Salomonson said. “I’m just resting and working. It’s been tough. I missed the tournament last year, which was disappointing. And playing just one shift was terrible.”
However, head coach Magnus Heverid brought him back to Sandin Pelica, and the team was definitely happy to have him back.
“He’s one of our key players. We need him on the ice,” Hevelid said. “He’s a two-way defenseman. He’s strong defensively, but he’s also rushing. He makes good decisions. He’s very consistent and at a high level every shift.”
Skellefteå staff agrees that part of Salomonsson’s draft year dip is due to the expected ups and downs that come with age.
Because of his August 31st birthday, Salomonson is actually one of the youngest players to be eligible for the 2022 draft, leaving him just weeks away from being eligible for the 2023 draft, Forsell said. , Johnson and Ohlsson are quick to point out.
In that context, the fact that he scored points per game at the J20 level and played in the SHL at the age of 16 is a foreshadowing of things to come, as he was unable to finish his 17-year-old season. It couldn’t have been a warning.” It doesn’t quite match the excitement that built up early on.
That’s because today he looks closer to the trajectory of the first-rounder he was projected to be at age 16 than the 17-year-old second-rounder the Jets drafted.
Johnson describes him as a typical two-way defenseman with outstanding attributes on both sides of the puck.
“His physical game in the D-zone has improved a lot. He’s just one of those D guys who goes out to the corner and gets a stop. Once he goes out to the corner, the flow of the game doesn’t continue very much. No,” Johnson said. “And he skates like, ‘Oh my god.’ Like the first four or five steps, I don’t think anyone at his age comes close to skating like that. Like crazy. Sometimes. , he’s in front of our forwards at the blue line in the offensive zone and sometimes even has to stop there. He moves a lot and goes to the corner of the offensive zone to attack the other team’s D and goes He can come and hit the net. He shoots well at the blue line, especially on one-timers. And he can also do things head-on, although he’s not a guy who hangs around too much. But he The biggest thing in ‘s offensive game is the rushing game. He joins the rush and creates the odd rush from there, creating a lot of 3-on-2 and 4-on-3 opportunities with him.”
Forssell credits his efforts to improve while rehabbing his ankle last season and the perseverance he showed despite being clearly disappointed in missing out on his first World Juniors appearance.
He expects him to not only become Sweden’s top defensive player, but also top in the tournament.
“They really have a top defenseman in Elias,” Ohlsson said. “He can play a lot of minutes. This year, he had a great performance for us at the beginning of August, but then he went to camp in Winnipeg and came back and he’s played really well since then. I continue to do so.”
Johnson, who returned from injury in “even better form this year,” was excited to compete against and coach his colleagues.
“He’s been playing 16-17 minutes a game and has been performing really well for us (at Skellefteå). It’s going to be interesting to see players his age,” Johnson said. Ta. “He’s just a calm person, he takes each day as it comes. He doesn’t think too much about the future. He just lives in the moment and takes whatever comes his way.”
The world juniors are just another step toward the NHL future they believe lies ahead for Salomonsson, who signed an entry-level contract with the Jets in October. He has communicated frequently with Jets director of player development Jimmy Roy by text message over the past two years and has impressed in camp.
“He’s going to be a player with a lot of upside in the NHL because he can play anywhere in the lineup with the tools he has,” Forssell said. “He could go from No. 1 to No. 6. He fits everything. It’s a tough job and everything, but I certainly have high feelings and expectations for him. And I think he’s better than a lot of people think because his draft year was a down year for him and he had injuries last year.”
Ohlsson compares him to another Swedish NHL player who was drafted No. 4 instead of No. 55.
“I think he’s a little bit like Adam Larson,” Ohlsson said. “They’re similar players. They’re solid two-way defensemen, they’re solid. Elias has a little bit of the same things as Adam, and maybe even better than Adam in the skating department. Hmm. He just figured it out.”
As for Salomonsson, he said he has worked hard since the draft to get his game back to where he thought it could be. Although skating has always come naturally to him, he has worked hard with several skating coaches since childhood to reach the form he skates in today. And he’s made a conscious effort to utilize his skating more and jump into plays whenever there’s a game. chance.
He has worked hard with Johnson on the defensive end as well. stick work. body positioning. Box out. They made significant progress there together.
Sandin Peljka has seen the results firsthand and jokes that he just wants to catch up with Skellefteå and his Team Sweden teammates. in his career and on the ice.
“He has always been one step ahead of me. When I was playing with the U18s, he was playing with the U20s. And when I was playing with the U20s, he was in the first team. ” said Sandin Pelica. “But now playing with him in the SHL, you see him fly out there. He’s a big guy who skates really well, can get the puck up and pass, and has two Seconds later he’s already at their net. He’s a very good player.”
(Top photo: Bjorn Larsson Rosvall / TT News Agency / AFP via Getty Images)
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