A closer look at Lucas Feuk

I’ll apologize now for the many times I’ll use this gag: let’s find out who the Feuk this guy is.

Lucas Feuk, pronounced “folk,” is a 6’0″, 185 pound winger/centre from Stockholm. He’s spent his entire hockey career playing for Södertälje, having mostly played in their junior squads before breaking through to the Superelit this most recent season. Known as an offensive dynamo who isn’t afraid to use his size (his reasoning for his high 84 PIMS this past season), Feuk hopes to improve on his power and speed to really take his game to the next level.

If there’s negatives, scouts have mixed reviews on his defensive play and commitment. While there’s certainly a lot of praise for his offensive game, he’s also been labelled as a bit of a risk-taker, for better or for worse.

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Feuk was the best offensive player on his team without a doubt. He lead the team in scoring, and was near the top of every other category compared to his teammates. He picked up points on 30.82% of his team’s goals, 22.25% of them being primary contributions. Those numbers improve at 5v5, jumping just a tick to 30.84% on all goals, and an impressive 27.53% primary contributions. Equal parts goalscorer and playmaker, Feuk is just pure danger in the offensive zone.

The defensive concerns with Feuk can be seen in his points totals too. Feuk was rarely trusted with shorthanded and empty net situations, rarely picking up ice time in those high leverage defensive moments. Maybe it’s something that will require further coaching, but if he’s simply a one dimensional player, it reduces his chances of ever making it overseas.

Relative to the rest of the SuperElit, he was one of the better U18 players. He ranks fifth in total points in that age range, and seventh in points per game. Of the players ahead of him, you have three projected top ten picks next season (Noah Gunler, Lucas Raymond, Alexander Holtz), and two players picked ahead of him this current draft. That’s not necessarily a bad group of cohorts, though he’s probably not going to experience the same level of success.

That being said, a lot of his cohorts who are more likely to have NHL futures are playing in higher level leagues. Though Feuk can claim that he’s a bit ahead of the curve, as he played the fourth most games of any U18 player in the Allsvenskan (five games, zero points, so not much), he’s still a bit behind the typical Swedes who become NHLers. A lot of the Swedish players drafted ahead of him saw significant time in better leagues and/or with various Swedish international teams. Feuk was left out of those conversations.

That doesn’t necessarily doom Feuk though. Flames prospect Filip Sveningsson had worse SuperElit totals at the same age as Feuk, but has grown into one of Sweden’s most exciting young players, picking up the most points among U20 players in the Allsvenskan last season. Feuk posted similar era-adjusted scoring metrics to SuperElit alums Jakub Vrana, Adrian Kempe, and Kevin Fiala, suggesting that a path to the NHL is definitely possible.

Not to say that this is the exact path Feuk will follow, just that his SuperElit numbers can still be a little deceiving.

At first glance, Feuk is far away from North American hockey, and certainly even further from the NHL. But next season should provide a lot of insight into what the winger is made of.

Feuk will have the opportunity to jump to pro and play in the Allsvenskan (Sweden’s second division) with the Södertälje men’s team. He had a five game cup of coffee with the big squad, a sort of mini audition for him. If he makes the pros, he’ll be honing his skills against older, more experiences players and has a great opportunity to really establish himself as a future power forward.

We can only wait and see whether or not he’ll stick, but he’s got the best chance of anyone on Södertälje to make that jump.

Jakob Pelletier | Ilya Nikolayev