Coming to North America Was No-Brainer For Top Prospect From Sweden

Filed under: NHL Draft, NHL Rumors, International Hockey, Minor League Hockey, Junior HockeyKITCHENER, Ontario, Canada -- A steely resolve came over Gabriel Landeskog's face when he was asked whether he did the right thing by moving to Canada in his mid-teens to play major junior hockey and possibly take a shortcut to the NHL. Landeskog (in yellow uniform in photo, right) is in his second season with the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League and the skills he used to become one of the youngest players ever in the Swedish Elite League a couple of years ago have also vaulted him to the top of the NHL's rankings of skaters in North America for the NHL Draft in June. If selected first overall, Landeskog will be the first Swede to go that high since Mats Sundin went to the Quebec Nordiques in 1989. "I thought it would be the best thing for my development," says Landeskog about coming to this side of the Atlantic Ocean. "I didn't want to be a guy pla...