Central Scouting Rankings

On his style of play: I like to play a good two-way game. I like to join offensive rushes, but I know I’m a defenseman so I have a responsibility in my own zone. I like to play good offense and defense. I think that's my style of game, a good two-way game.

On patterning his game: (This season) I played with Mattias Timander who is a former NHL player so I really look up to him and try to listen to him. He gives me good advice all the time. That's a player I look up to and try to play like, but of course these young defensemen like Tobias Enstrom and Edler, it's good to see that young Swedish defensemen are doing well in the NHL. Of course I would like to follow in their footsteps.

On getting his start in hockey: My brothers of course because they were playing hockey I started to play hockey, but I also played soccer until I was 14 years old, then I started to focus 100% on hockey. But it was my own decision to play hockey because I really liked it. The atmosphere and the culture (in Ornskoldsvik) it's all about hockey and it's natural to me, to play hockey.

On competing with his older brothers: Definitely it made me tougher because when I was younger I always played in our basement and was always the goaltender. They were always shooting hard and I went up crying all the time, but then the next day I was down doing it again. It really made me tougher. My brothers helped me a lot during all these years so I have a lot of thanks to give them.

On his hometown of Ornskoldsvik, Sweden: Like I said there’s a big hockey culture and hockey is everything in Ornskoldsvik. We have a lot of rinks and also outside rinks. Always after school we went out with our friends and played hockey. That’s the biggest reason I think because we always played hockey and loved to do it. Everybody is living with the hockey in Ornskoldsvik; it's a big sport up north.

On training with NHL players in the summer: They come back during the summers and some of them are doing the off-ice with us. Almost every one of them is skating with (MoDo) in the pre-season. It's obviously a good experience to me and everyone else back home to practice with those guys because they are some of the best players in the NHL so it's good experience to us.

On playing for Team Sweden: It’s a big honor. One of the bigger things you can do as a junior is to play in the World Junior tournament and to represent your country is like I said a big honor.

On his childhood hockey hero: Peter Forsberg is the biggest one, everyone talked about him when I was younger, looked at him a lot when he was playing in the NHL. He's the one I look up to the most. But obviously everyone from Ornskoldsvik was following a little bit more and they have helped me a lot. They have told me it's a big honor to represent the Sweden national team and I really like to play for Sweden.

On fellow prospect John Tavares: Obviously, I have played him once, but you can see he is a very good goal scorer, good with the puck and good on the power play. Maybe as a defenseman you have to stay close to him and not give him too much space because he's really good when he has space and he's good with the puck. He's hard to stop, but not impossible.

On his love for flying: I’ve always been fascinated by air craft and how they can fly. I really like it because my grandpa once was a pilot in the military. I didn’t know it at first, but then I really wanted to become a pilot, to get pilot's certificate. I don’t know it just came naturally. It's like a big dream I have to be a pilot and hopefully I will get my pilot's certificate during my career in hockey, but if not I'll do it after.