He was the youngest player in NCAA Division I hockey this past season.
And on the heels of a strong freshman season at Boston University, Sascha Boumedienne is eagerly anticipating the chance to walk across the stage at this month’s NHL Draft.
The 18-year-old defender is one of several Swedes receiving high billing ahead of the Draft, but unlike his countrymen, Boumedienne moved across the pond in his early teens, honing his skills on North American ice in Ohio, and then the USHL.
“I only moved to the U.S. four years ago, I spent more (of my childhood) in Sweden,” Boumedienne said during a quick conversation last week at the NHL Combine in Buffalo. “I’ve loved it since we moved here four years ago.”
He’s hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps, and his father’s employment was instrumental in the family’s move to North America.
Josef Boumedienne - also a defenceman during his playing days - spent 17 years playing pro hockey, a run that included NHL stops in New Jersey, Tampa Bay and Washington.
Now the GM of the Swedish national team, Josef had a hand in his sons’ development in Ohio, coaching both Sascha and his younger brother, Wilson, while working in the Columbus Blue Jackets’ front office.
Sascha - who had 13 points from the Terriers’ blueline in 2024-25 - picked up the subleties to the North American game quickly.
“It’s a little different, just the style of play,” he explained. “The North American way is maybe a little quicker, obviously you play on a different-sized sheet. It’s a lot quicker going north, in Sweden, maybe you turn back a little more and try to make a tape-to-tape play, or a pretty play.
“Definitely a little different, and definitely a bit of a learning curve when I first got here.”
In Boston, Boumedienne was surrounded by NHL prospects. The defence corps featured four - including countryman Tom Willander - and Boumedienne figures being around older, more mature players over the course of the season helped fast-track his own growth.
“I just feel like you’re around a lot of older guys, so off the ice you mature as a person,” he said. ”I feel like that’s pretty natural when you’re around older guys 24-7.
“But I feel like I grew on the ice as a player, the way I think, just got drastically better throughout the year. It’s helped in every aspect.”
He was a permanent fixture on the backend, too, playing in all 38 games for the Terriers during their run to the NCAA final, while bringing a little bit of everything to the ice.
“I’d describe myself as a two-way guy who uses my skating all over the ice,” he said of his own playing style. “I’ll defend really hard, and make it hard on guys and eliminate time and space.
“And then (I’m) a guy who likes to jump up in the rush and create offence. I like to be all over the ice and do a bit of everything.”
In Buffalo, Boumedienne made an impression, too. He finished in the top 10 in three of the fitness testing categories, and only four of the 89 other invitees put up more reps at the pull-up station than the 14 he knocked out.
All while following in Dad’s footsteps, even if the Combine and Draft landscape has changed since Josef was selected in the fourth round by the Devils 29 years ago.
“I don’t even know if it was a thing back then!” he laughed. “He obviously got drafted, but he wasn’t at the Combine.
“He just said to have fun with it and be myself.”
