Filip Forsberg: Puck Daddy’s 2012 NHL Draft FAQ
The 2012 NHL Draft is upon us. Many hockey fans know these prospects well. Others are aware there's a guy named "Nail" and some other dudes among the top picks. Please allow Puck Daddy's 2012 NHL Draft FAQ to fill in the gaps.
Who is this person?
Filip Forsberg, 17, a right-handed shooting forward from Östervåla, Sweden.
How do you say …?
Fill-ipp Fours-burgh
So he's Peter Forsberg's son?
Uh, we're going to call [expletive] on this one. He's Swedish, he's good at hockey, his name is Forsberg.
On that last point, please understand that "Forsberg" is the Swedish equivalent of "Jones." Go to any public square in Stockholm, yell "HEY, FORSBERG" and you'll see their blonde little heads perk up like groundhogs.
That said … look, if you do that math, Foppa could be his Papa. But we have to take this young man at his word about his relatives — brother of Fredrik, cousin of Linus Carlsson — until Maury gets back to us with the paternity results.
Where did he play?
With Leksands IF in the Allsvenskan, along with several appearances on Sweden's world junior teams. He had 38 points in 45 international junior games.
What does he do to make scouts drool on their wrinkled suits?
There's a chance he could develop into an elite power forward in the NHL, but needs to add muscle to his 6-1, 190-pound frame. He loves to throw around the body and play in the trenches. He's also a deft puck-handler who has great straight-ahead speed. The best comparison, according to NHL Director of European Scouting, Goran Stubb: Corey Perry. Minus, we assume, the petulant streak.
What does he do to make scouts pop antacids?
The potential to become a power forward is eons from actually being one. There's no telling how he'll fill out, and who long it'll be before he's physically ready to compete in the NHL.
What does he look like firing a machine gun in a World War II fighter plane?
Is he on Twitter?
Negative.
Most revealing personal "favorites" answer?
When asked what the worst song on his iPod was, he said a song he recorded on his own: "I'm not that good at making songs, but I tried once just for fun. It was not a top song, and I would not play it on the radio." We respect that level of honesty.
Celebrity he most resembles?
Pick a boy band. He's the approachable goofy one.
Forsberg on being drafted by a big market, with Y! Sports' Junior Hockey Blog Buzzing The Net (see full profile here)
"I just try to enjoy this as much as possible," Forsberg said when asked about the spectre of being taken No. 3 overall by the Montreal Canadiens or No. 5 by the Toronto Maple Leafs. "It's not what you're used to back home in Sweden, all this media stuff, but I like it. Hopefully it's a part of your coming life, so you have to enjoy it. It would be a difference even though I live in a pretty crazy hockey town in Leksands. It would be hard for them to come up to the standard here in Toronto, because it's such a hockey culture here.
"I have to be myself, because that's why I'm here. I know I'm a good player, but I want to show I'm a good person."
Where will he be drafted?
Bob McKenzie has him ranked as the No. 3 overall prospect. Kyle Woodlief has him down at No. 5 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, as does NHL Mock Draft. Over a dozen of the Mocks on DC Pro Sports have him going as high as No. 2, and that's where he went in Buzzing The Net's mock draft.
How large are his nipples?
About yay big.
Obligatory YouTube
Here's a couple of Forsberg tallies against the Russians: