Bjorck makes mark on international stage ahead of 2026 NHL Draft

The 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 26-27 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. The first round will be June 26 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) and rounds 2-7 on June 27 (11 a.m. ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at forward Viggo Bjorck from Djurgarden in the Swedish Hockey League. NHL.com's full draft coverage can be found here.

Viggo Bjorck wasn't going to let the moment pass.

Bjorck was going against Sidney Crosby on the first day of the 2026 IIHF World Championship and was determined to bring home a souvenir -- one of the future Hockey Hall of Famer’s sticks.

"I wanted to ask him on the ice," Bjorck said. "I said to my brother (Wilson Bjorck) before, ‘If I get the chance to ask him, I will do it.’ I mean, that's a memory you're going to have for the rest of your life."

Bjorck didn't get to ask Crosby during the game, but he found an opening afterward.

"I go past him in the mixed zone, and he's standing behind me, and it's like, I'll take my chance now," Bjorck said.

The moment was caught on video by Swedish TV channel SVT Sport, with Crosby saying he'd try to save a stick for Bjorck before the tournament ended.

When Bjorck returned home following Sweden's seventh-place finish, he was able to add a special keepsake to his hockey bag. It was autographed and personalized.

"Everyone is asking Sid for a stick, I can imagine," Bjorck said. "He can't just give them away at the start of the tournament; he's not going to have anything left. He said something about ‘we'll see you later in the tournament, and if I have something left, I can.’ ... I got one."

The World Championship was memorable for Bjorck for several reasons. The 18-year-old centered Sweden's top line in each of its eight games, had six points (one goal, five assists) and was voted one of Sweden's three best players.

And not only did he get a signed Crosby stick, Bjorck received a stamp of approval from the Pittsburgh Penguins superstar.

"He looked great out there," Crosby told SVT Sport. "... He's pretty poised, and you can tell he's competitive. He's not the biggest guy but (he) sees the ice well. Good shot. He does everything well.

“I think it was more the way he competed; he looked like he was really assertive with the puck. He played well."

That scouting report isn't far from what NHL talent evaluators saw from Bjorck this season. He had 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in 42 games with Djurgarden and also helped Sweden win the gold medal at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship, where he had nine points (three goals, six assists) in seven games.

Regardless of the level of competition, Bjorck (5-foot-9, 180 pounds) brought a consistently relentless approach in all three zones to go with his high-end offensive skill set.

"He's the guy who can survive everywhere he goes, even though he's a smaller body," NHL Director of European Scouting Jukka-Pekka Vuorinen said. "He showed that in the Swedish Hockey League and also on the men's national team. ... He's like a Sidney Crosby-type player, and his hockey intelligence shows through with clever movement and spatial awareness in tight areas, which will, in my mind, help him adjust to the NHL in the future."

The first step toward that future came with Bjorck earning a full-time spot in the SHL this season, something he was hoping for but wasn't sure would happen.

Djurgarden coach Robert Kimby sheltered Bjorck early in the season, playing him on the wing and mostly in offensive-zone situations. It was a plan he felt worked well last season with forwards Anton Frondell (Chicago Blackhawks) and Victor Eklund (New York Islanders), each of whom played in the NHL this season after being selected in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft, and he wanted to see it through with Bjorck.

"I think that putting him into situations where he can leave the game with a good experience, we believe a month or 10 games of feeling good about himself, we think that is a good way to get them to grow, and then to put more responsibility on them the further into the season we get," Kimby said.

After Bjorck's success at World Juniors, Kimby saw a more confident player and rewarded him with ice time in more important situations.

"We played him top minutes against our opponent's first center the rest of the year," Kimby said. "We played him top minutes short-handed, and I think he earned that. I think he averaged 20 or 21 minutes going from January to when we get knocked out of the playoffs."

Bjorck also played important minutes at the World Championship, where his average ice time (18:44) ranked third among Sweden forwards. That included 18:58 against Canada in the opener, which led to the compliment he received from Crosby.

Bjorck tried to downplay Crosby's comments.

"When you're in front of camera like that, you really don't want to talk (badly) about a player,” he said. “From what I've heard, and talking to him a little bit there, he seems like a very nice person. It's very nice to hear. It's a legend of the game and one of the best."

Bjorck's friends were quick to let him know about Crosby’s comments, but he's keeping his ego in check. He knows there still are facets of his game that need to improve before he can be ready to join Crosby in the NHL.

"I want to be an all-around player, so just I'm trying to get better at everything, of course," Bjorck said. "Going up to the SHL this season, when you're starting to take face-offs there in the last half of the season, it was very hard; not the same as in the juniors in any way. So, I started working a lot of that with the coaches and some other guys from the team, (Marcus) Krueger. ... I think that went better in the World Championship as well, and later on in the season."

Kimby said he'd like to see Bjorck add some deception to his offensive game and continue to develop physically to win more of the battles he's always ready to jump into.

Bjorck expects to play at least one more season in Djurgarden, but playing in the World Championship gave him a good idea of how close he is to being NHL ready.

"It's a hard question to talk about yourself like that, but I think I held my own and did pretty well against some very good NHL players in the World Championship," he said. "You want to have confidence, but I would like to give it a shot in the next couple of years, anyways."