The Calgary Flames have gone through phases when it comes to their late round picks. If you look at their seventh round selections, you can see the organization’s approach become more refined. The 2014 draft saw them take overage checker Austin Carroll, 2015 saw them take young and lanky Riley Bruce, and 2016 saw them take gigantic Belarussian overager Stepan Falkovsky.
But at the 2017 draft in Chicago the Flames opted for Swedish forward Filip Sveningsson, one of the youngest players in the draft class but one with a decent offensive track record. So far, Sveningsson’s performance has made his selection seem like a smart gamble. He comes in at #17 in our 2018 top 20 prospect rankings.
How did we get here?
Originally from Gislaved, Sweden – a small town in southern Sweden, about midway between Stockholm and Jonkoping – Sveningsson played his way through local minor hockey in his hometown before moving onto the HV71 organization in 2014-15.
If you look at Sveningsson’s long-term trajectory, you can see why the Flames were so enthusiastic about his selection:
- In his 13-year-old year, he had 3.2 points per game in Sweden’s U16 second division and 1.7 per game in their U16 first division.
- In his 14-year-old year, he had 1.7 points per game in the U16 first division and 0.6 per game in their U20 first division.
- In his 15-year-old year, he had 1.9 points per game in the U16 elite division and 0.30 per game in their U18 first division.
- In his 16-year-old year, he had 1.0 points per game in the U18 first division and 1.9 per game in the U18 elite division.
- In his 17-year-old year (his draft year), he had 0.8 points per game in the U20 elite division.
- In his 18-year-old year, he had 1.1 points per game in the U20 elite division.
Sveningsson was drafted by the Flames 202nd overall in the 2017 NHL Draft in his first year of draft eligiblity. In the run up to the event, he was the 65th-ranked European skater by Central Scouting.
He’s consistently been playing against high-end players who are two or three years older than himself, and has consistently found ways to adapt to changing situations and figure out how to increase his offensive production. For the past two seasons he’s been a primary offensive contributor for HV71’s junior squad.
Stats, numbers, and everything therein
Sveningsson spent the bulk of the season with HV71’s junior branch in the Swedish SuperElit U20 league.
Games played | Goals | Assists | Points |
35 | 17 | 22 | 39 |
He finished the season tied for 23rd in SuperElit scoring. He also played 11 games in the SHL, going pointless in a fourth line role.
For a deeper dive into Sveningsson’s numbers, revisit Christian Tiberi’s writeup on him here.
Those in the know
Prior to last month’s development camp, Sveningsson was one of the players that Flames management were excited to see on the ice, as evidenced by radio interviews conducted by Craig Conroy and Brad Treliving. While Sveningsson did look quite energetic during the on-ice sessions, we picked the brains of a few folks more familiar with him to get a sense of his game.
Future Considerations Sweden scout Christoffer Hedlund was able to provide his assessment of Sveningsson’s performance last season:
Sveningsson developed well during the season, he went from a being good junior player to one of the best players in J20 SuperElit. With his quick and deadly shot, offensive instincts, great top speed and high work rate Sveningsson has been able to dominate games in J20 SuperElit, and he has nothing left to prove against junior players in Sweden. For the next season he has signed with IK Oskarshamn in HockeyAllsvenskan (second tier in Sweden), hopefully he can transition from being a leading junior player to become an impact player in a men’s league. The route through HockeyAllsvenskan is not a bad option and for a young offensively skilled forward, it is sometimes better to get a more fitting role and more ice time in HockeyAllsvenskan instead of having a role as a filler player in the SHL.
Flames director of development Ray Edwards noted a few reasons why the club is excited to see how Sveningsson keeps developing.
What we like about him is he brings a full combination of skill, speed and some jam. This guy has a high motor. Like a lot of young players there’s some inconsistency to it, but he’s a really nice package. When you get a combination of skill, speed, grit, sort of fire in his belly, when you get that combination that’s something to work with.
On the horizon
As Hedlund mentioned, Sveningsson will graduate from the Swedish SuperElit junior league to the secondary pro league (HockeyAllsvenskan) and spend the 2018-19 season with IK Oscarshamn. As a 1999 birthday, he’s still eligible to potentially play for Sweden at the World Juniors.
He’s signed for two seasons (through 2019-20) and the Flames retain his NHL rights for three more seasons, so there’s some flexibility in terms of how the club can handle his development. If he lights up the secondary Swedish league, maybe they look at bringing him over to North America next season or even just exploring a move to the SHL so he can continue to be challenged.
#20 – Martin Pospisil | #19 – Demetrios Koumontzis |
#18 – Emilio Pettersen |
Anyone know the Soilers line up this year ? I was reading some comments, lots of excuses , Talbot sucked cause his kids kept him up at night and lucic has vision problems lolololololol.
McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH and about a dozen players that would pass waivers.
I looked yesterday and it is kind of funny. They have all 4 centre positions pretty much pegged, but the majority of wingers positions…they have no idea. A mediocre defense lineup pretty much set with Talbot and an untested backup? No cap room (already) and no idea where anyone plays? It’s pretty much normal course of action for the mess up North
Hey redleader at least your post is coherent today lolololol
Also it’s strome who is having vision problems. Nothing like making fun of a guy with vision problems. Whatever floats your boat.
Don’t forget the oilers roster 2 years ago took them 1 win from the conference finals. (You know the same year the flames won ZERO playoff games lmao) Last year the oilers had the highest rankings to win the cup. What does that mean? That means every team was prepared and waiting to bring there best game everytime they played the oilers. Now that the flames got rid of Hamilton and ferland and replaced them with Prout, neal and Lindholm….. well I would say the flames are now the Stanley cup favourites ?…. which means they better be prepared cause teams will no longer take them for granted. You know when you’ve only been out of the second round of the playoffs twice in 30 fn years teams tend to not take you seriously lol
How’s the new arena coming along??? See ya at The Ice Dictrict 🙂
Yeeeeeeeeeehawwwwwwwwww!!!!
Lol typical soiler fan always in the past never looking towards the Future that’s the difference between the two clubs . Ones competitive and ones a draft lottery team still talking about 30 year old Hockey hilarious ?
Lol truth hurts hey redleader? How is it the flames are in cap trouble and they don’t even have a Mcwipe of there own?
Cap trouble? Lolololol compared to what ….. the Oilers are in cap trouble !! Hey spilly if you mean the truth hurts by how amped I am about my team and this season and how much it hurts to wait to watch them school the league then yes I agree the truth hurts!!
What future?
How’s the new rink that is already boasting a losing record and now that them 20 mill is on the books from Draidle and mcwipe I can say …… I told you soooo lololololo
Biggg yaaaaaaaaaawnnnn. I win
The new rink already has pieces of tin falling off the roof! and Katz is whining about getting more money out of the city for his public plaza which was part of his package to get public money out of city taxpayers – 450 million wasn’t it?
Otw’s first test.
Oiler on deck. What to do?
Sarcasm is on my tongue and my fingers are itchy…
You have a fine day there Spilly..
You have a fine day too OTF
Slow day on ON. Actually Redleader is right… there are questions circulating about Louchicks eye sight. Check it out in between your trolling and you will see what people are saying. It should be an easy article to find because it is pretty much the only one not about McD. Just curious, what does that trophy look like that you got for being 1 win away from the conference final it must be different from the one we got during those playoffs. Thanks for keeping tabs on your neighbors to the south.
And we got this Kid Hanifin from that trade two ! You kinda missed the other top 10 pick . Ahhh I’d actually rather Hanifin defending against Mcdavid than Hamilton anyway so watch and learn ,Here comes the Train !!
More like two top 5 drafts actually, for a later 1rst round ,2 second rounds ,a 3rd and 4rth overall !! Trevlings on fire ?
Carl, can I make a special request? Let’s not kick off threads talking about the Oilers please. We have a good prospect here who we should be focusing on.
Thanks bud.
K I’ll wait atleast two threads in next time . Lol couldn’t help myself at least I left ON alone ………… so far lol
Please maybe don’t do that either. Trolling them just rebounds on FN two or three fold and it is annoying AF to wade through it all.
Please.
Why Carl… the lol thing is a stain on your rather lengthy and psychotic lineage. It cheapens you to common trash. For the love of god, stop!
Yeah but in real life I’m rich ,good looking , and I am literally a God !! Like right now I read your baldish leaky weak mind ,and your future looks like dogpoop . Change your entire existence, then you can laugh like me lololol . But seriously I’m so rich and eccentric that the word “common “ain’t in my vocab .
About the topic though…
This kid looks to be on a great trajectory (especially for his age) that you like to see in a hockey player. Every year they seem to have to bump him up a level, because he is just gets it and excels pretty quickly. I think this is the progression you love to see from a later draft pick, and I can see why the Flames are watching him closely. This will definitely be the telling year for his progression status, but so far so good. Again…so young?
Side note to Oiler fans…**later draft picks**
I wonder if Hakan Loober had any input on the intel of this kid. Nice to get someone beating the weeds for some decent later round picks.
It’s kind of nice to watch drafted prospects get better “after” they are drafted. It seems to be a constant narrative now a days. I love looking up our prospects now and seeing how they are progressing. This wasn’t really the same in the pre-BT eras since the 80’s. UFA is always a crapshoot…but drafting and developing is where the money is. Well…signing contracts as well, but he one of the best for that also. I really think now that Burke is gone, this is truly becoming what BT envisions. Overall I think the Flames are in good hands and the future looks pretty bright, with a good stable in the now too.
Another beauty Swede.
He’s got a cute Pug, how can you not like this kid?
I hope he tears it up in the next league. Better get him away from the 4th line, (SHL )if they expect any offence from him…
FN, is it possible to get the prospects basic details with these write-ups : height, weight, age…?
Filip is 19 years old.
6feet tall, 181 lbs
LW
Built like a young Zetterberg… k thats silly but Zetterberg was a late round pick too… flames keep making picks this one of these days one is going to hit it big!
Why do you need to know their height or weight?
Those things are irrelevant around here aren’t they? ?
Height doesn’t measure Heart!
But seriously that info should be there, but FN shys away from ANY old school Hockey Card info.
So only advanced stats, but not regular stats. Got it. 😉
Maybe FlamesNation could just tell us how his height and weight reflects on the historical average of Swedes in the last 2 decades and then we could reverse engineer that data to figure out if this kid can go on the big amusement park rides or not.
Sheesh…the Flames had 2 captains in the world juniors this year. One captain in the World Cup. 2 of those won Gold? How’s that for leadership and a care factor, now and in the future? Goalie prospect winning a Memorial and Gold WJC. An un-drafted signing leading his team to the Memorial Cup and winning league MVP in the Playoffs to boot. With this stable constantly producing leaders with skill…there is no reason to worry about giving away players like Adam Fox. The Flames have how many 1st rounders playing this year in the lineup? That with a few top players being picked from later rounds or even undrafted. I think BT is putting together a great recipe here, bringing the Flames from a very questionable period. We need one of those years ya know? Where everything just pans out from NHL to AHL, and even to ECHL. Everybody progressing in the right direction. This could be the year that really shows colour…and I’m banking it’s red!
If it was time for Treviling to win the Manager Of The Year Award, it would be now. Burke suggested and helped create this Award in 2010. How fitting it would be if BT won it right after Burke retires from hockey?
Betcha Burke presents it this year at the awards…
The team is young the prospects are decent. But it’s now time to hold onto draft picks and restock the cupboards.
Sorry Gawdin was a drafted castoff (Blues), not undrafted overall. But a tryout signed non the less before he really proved himself. I have a feeling Gawdin will become one of the best “eye tests” that BT will ever have.
Flames are bottom three in terms of prospect cupboard coming into this season.
…and the first one I accessed after googling it put the Flames 6th overall. Weird? It depends on the site and biased of course. Everything is with a grain of salt?
I read that one too. It has Edmonton 20th. Looking up at the 5 teams ahead of the Flames it looks to me like the Flames prospects are as good or better.
Yea that was just pronman. He is an oilers fan. But of bias
Lolol oh ThunderBrian , go back to Mexico
..was that rated by Lambert??
Can we see if the Flames make the playoffs this year before planning the parade for Treliving?
Not sure where you are getting this planning the parade thing. Just fans being optimistic and happy that they have better prospects then in the past…….
I got it from hockeysense9393 saying Treliving should get manager of the year. Sorry if I hurt everyones feelings by not being gushy and irrationally enthsuiastic but someone needs to be the voice of reason 🙂
Ummm it’s realistic to be excited about it the upcoming prospects.
This kid looks to have some good upside, I hope he lights it up.
Since it is a slow period in Flames hockey, I decided to checkout some of our neighboring websites. I don’t feel that it is my place to comment on other team’s websites so for me it is all about the understanding the temperature of their fan base.
Some interesting speculation in Canuckland on why Linden exited the organization…. the buzz is that the organization agreed to not engage in a full rebuild but Linden changed his mind and was no longer aligned with the ownership and Benning, who put together a $85 million dollar pitch on a 7 year contract for Tavares. Fans seem pumped about the prospects with Peterson, Dahlen, and Demko leading the way. They still seem high on Juolevi which I am not sure about.
Now the unbridled Oiler buzz. For the most part they seem happy with the UFA signings but the general consensus is that Chia did not do enough this off season because he did not have the cap room.
It seems like there is a lot riding on Yamamoto and JP to move up the line up and contribute. There were a lot of posters that were writing JP off as a bust at 20 yrs old….so it is not just Flames fans that can be irrational and impatient with young players. The one thing that caught my eye was the different styles the Flames and Oilers have with their projected 4th lines
Edmonton
Kharia- Brod-Kassian
Calgary
Mangi-Janko/Ryan-Czarnik
Size and grit favour Oilers while speed and scoring should favour the Flames.
I still think Filip Sveningsson sounds made up.
Lol a true fantasy player , this year should tell us a lot more about what we got for prospects! I’m trying to limit my expectations, I thought Poirier was gonna be on the team by now after his AHL allstar rookie season , how did Falkovsky and that other defensive prospect we traded last year doing ? Now Fox traded , but so far Trevlings been right .
Which part. The Filip or Sveningsson.?
..like the Swedish chef of Muppets fame!
Brandon Hickey ,couldn’t remember his name.
When is first game vs Carolina? I’ll be marking that game on the calendar!
Hickey got traded by Arizona to Buffalo.
Speaking of Austin Carroll, I see where he signed an ECHL contract with the Utah Grizzlies.
Do a mailbag with lineup suggestions
Make me a sandwich
Mmmm sammitch
I was just combining my full head of hair with my solid gold custom comb and realized that Sveningsson may have more upside then originally projected by the scouts. My pals on Oilers nation never heard of the guy, but he may still be a dolid 4th liner in a couple years.
Did you swallow a ball? Your eyes look googly.
New avatar.
New man.
Man with hair and money
Same old avatar
Old man
Main with no hair or money
My bank account allows me to talk down to others. GFG
Suck on!
Looking forward to seeing him play in the World Juniors!
Great top speed wicked shot ,offensive instincts, Looks to be a decent pick , i would imagine Flames draft another goalie next season.
Carl the Viking, I’ve noticed that when you space out your comments and are thoughtful about what you are posting your stuff is good and insightful. Today you posted a lot of stuff and your thoughts were a bit diluted. If you post less and condense your thoughts the Tooth will have more bite! Know what I’m saying? Tooth!!!