The Vancouver Canucks’ seventh-round pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft is continuing to look like a great value pick.
Right-winger Lucas Forsell was one of the youngest players in the 2021 draft and if he was born 10 days later, you’d likely see him be a top-75 pick in the 2022 draft.
Last Monday, Forsell signed a two-year deal with the SHL team that he grew up with. Forsell will play the next two hockey seasons with Färjestad as he has already gotten a good run with them this season as an 18-year-old. Forsell has dressed for 20 SHL games this season and earned the trust of the organization to give him an SHL contract before the coming offseason.
We spoke with Forsell earlier this year and talked about how much hockey he is playing as he jumps around between the SHL and J20 teams. He told us that some days he was doing two practices a day and was loving every second of it.
His J20 team was dealing with a horrendous start to the season but we have seen a jolt to their wins of late. A lot of that has come from Forsell being an offensive dynamo in the J20 leagues.
This past weekend, Forsell went off as he scored three goals and added an assist on Saturday after throwing up three assists on Friday. Forsell totalled seven points in his two games on the weekend and is looking to get back into the SHL after a strong performance with the junior team on the weekend.
Here’s what his hat-trick looked like. The first goal was very impressive to see him work his hands while the other two came as the result of him using his quick and accurate shot to beat the goaltender.
Forsell’s playmaking has been the most impressive part of his game when we are evaluating him.
Here’s a look at his four assists from the two games on the weekend.
We won’t be seeing Forsell in the AHL or NHL anytime soon but as a seventh-round pick, there is value growing after the Canucks used that pick to select Forsell. We expect to see Forsell play for Sweden at next year’s World Junior Championships and that will be a good measuring stick as well as how he performs next year in the SHL as an 18/19-year-old.
Forsell went back to the SHL on Tuesday after his explosive weekend in the J20 league and didn’t take long to find the back of the net in the top Swedish league.
His confidence is sky high right now and that’s great news for the young Swedish prospect.
As the points come, we will keep you posted on Forsell’s season and now that he has been locked in with the new SHL contract, expect to see Färjestad give Forsell more opportunities as they look to develop him into a contributor to their team over the next two years.