The Rangers Head Professional Scout, Europe, Anders Hedberg, checked in from Slovakia—site of the 2011 World Ice Hockey Championships—to chat about Oscar Lindberg, the 19 year old Swedish forward acquired from the Coyotes Sunday. Though he didn’t wish to project a future NHL role on Lindberg, Hedberg did say that he expects Lindberg to play at least one more year—and possibly two—in Sweden before coming to North America, but fully expects Lindberg to be an NHL player. Read more of what Hedberg had to say about Phoenix’s second round pick from the 2010 draft.
(Lindberg) is a very solid player and his hockey sense is very good. His positioning on the ice—at both ends of the ice—is very good, so he knows the game and has very good hockey sense. He is not a finesse player really, but his hands are good, his skating stride is good—which is a really important part of becoming a good player. He can play in the middle or on the side, too. And he’s not fully developed yet. There’s more to come.
– Anders Hedberg
He’s a well-known player, someone we certainly knew about for a while. He was absolutely on our radar screen (prior to the 2010 draft). We had been watching him, and our staff knew him very well. Last year he played a regular shift in the (Swedish Elite League) and handled himself very well. And he was a trusted important player for Sweden (at the World Junior Championships). These are both very good things.
– Anders Hedberg
We are very happy to have Oscar, and more importantly, he is happy to be with us. Players in Europe, you never know how they’ll react to being traded. It’s not like in Canada where players get traded in Juniors all the time and they get used to it. That doesn’t happen in Europe. But he was very excited about the trade, which is great.
-Anders Hedberg