In-depth breakdown: David Edstrom (2023 draft profile)

David Edstrom was somewhat unknown when he was selected in the first round by Vegas in the 2023 draft. He is currently having a very good WJC tournament with Sweden. Here is his full profile.

A tall Swedish player playing in the center position, I had watched a few games of his at the start of the winter and despite the fact that I felt a certain appreciation for the player, I had seen fit not to continue my viewing on him, because I did not anticipate finding him a place in my top 32. Doing my homework on Otto Stenberg (Swedish compatriot and also a teammate at Frolunda) who is difficult to assess, because he always seems to look very good in international competition, but failed to dominate in the J20 in Sweden, I went to watch some SHL games to see what he looks like against men in a higher caliber. Surprise, in those games I watched, Edstrom happened to be his center and I was blown away by his play. Not only was he better than Stenberg, he was very good against the caliber of the SHL . It was clear that I needed to expand my sample on this player, so I looked at all 11 games he played in SHL (some of which his ice-time was quite limited). It was a very good context to evaluate him. He’s not the kind of player who will shine in a league like the J20, and if you’ve been reading me for a few years now, you must know my disdain for this league.

At 6’3 and 187 lbs, he is, for me, possibly the best defensive forward in the draft. He always plays on the right side of the puck. His defensive reads are extremely advanced. It not only requires a maturity that is not so common among players of his age, to be ready to sacrifice offense for the good of his team, but it requires a very good overall vision of the game to see where are his teammates on the ice who is caught out of position or who could commit a turnover. He does not hesitate to play deep in his own zone and he can also clear the front of his own net, being helped by his strong size.

Still without the puck, Edstrom is a threat on the forecheck as well as chasing the puck. He has a great motor and is constantly applying pressure to the puck carrier. He is not content to be a simple passenger, if he is going to apply pressure on a defender and the latter makes a pass before Edstrom takes the puck away from him, he is not going to backcheck quietly since he was the first player on the forecheck, he will immediately move towards the recipient of the pass to annoy him. He influences the game defensively.

Offensively, Edstrom uses his strong puck-retrieval game along the board to win battles and then set the table for a teammate in the slot. His play in those spots on the ice is very strong, because he is a player who plays with his head held high and who recognizes the pressure that is coming on him. To complement this, he also has a good level of talent that allows him to avoid being pinned against the boards, even if he has to pass the puck to himself by the boards. He is a player who demonstrates good resources in suffocating situations.

His size will always give him an advantage in certain situations, but what Edstrom does well is to incorporate this facet within his individual abilities. For example, by being very strong on his stick when handling the puck to prevent his opponents from lifting his stick and stealing the puck from him. He also has good hands, which makes for an interesting combination. I saw him perform a deke inside a defender’s triangle (area bounded between the base of their skates and their stick) and then skillfully pass his stick under his opponent to prevent the latter from lifting his stick. This requires a very high level of execution and also an understanding of fine subtleties that are very rarely seen in players of this age. He will always be a hard task for defenders to restrain in front of the net, where he scored many of his goals.

He also has some interesting offensive awareness as I saw him pick up a puck very close to the net, on his backhand, in a rather awkward position. Rather than trying to jam the puck desperately on his backhand behind the goalie, he cleverly turned around after taking possession of the puck and handed it to the other side to a teammate who had the net open, but who missed the target.

He is a player that I see still having potential to be exploited, both physically and in terms of skills. He may not become a Top-6 player, but for me he has the potential to be a very important piece in a secondary role on a championship team. I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the day he didn’t have a better impact than several guys ranked ahead of him, even if he’s not a player that will capture people’s attention.

Number of games watched : 13