Vancouver Canucks 2021 seventh-round draft pick Lucas Forsell earned a promotion to the Swedish Hockey League earlier this week. Now, he has the first SHL goal of his career.
Forsell has split the 2021–22 season between the SHL and Sweden’s junior league, the J20 Nationell, playing for Färjestad BK in both. He’s been on a tear in the J20, with a team-leading 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) in his first 24 games, but entered Thursday’s SHL game against Skellefteå AIK still looking for his first-ever point in the top-tier league.
With Färjestad down by two early in the third period, Forsell took a pass in the slot from Gustav Rydahl and quickly fired a low shot underneath the Skellefteå goaltender to cut the deficit to 4–3.
Here’s the video of the play, as posted to Twitter by Dobber Prospects Swedish regional scout Alexa Potack:
The Canucks selected Forsell with the 201st pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. Back in October, CanucksArmy’s own Faber talked to Forsell about his experiences dealing with adversity while playing with Färjestad’s J20 team, which at the time ranked last in the league with a 2–14–2 record. (They’ve since improved to 8–16–2).
“It’s really tough, you think about the losses all the time,” said Forsell. “As a hockey player, you want to win every game and right now we’re almost losing every game, so it’s been really tough. It damages your self-confidence as well. It’s going tough for us. It’s really tough but we’re trying, we still practice very hard.” […]
Forsell is still finding offence though. He is almost a point per game player on a horrendous team. He currently has three goals and nine assists for a total of 12 points in 15 games. […]
“I’m not a player that wants to shut down the other team’s top players,” said Forsell. “I want to be in the offensive zone because that’s where I am at my best.”
Assuming Forsell remains in the SHL for now, he’ll return to action on Dec. 4 when his team takes on IK Oskarshamn.
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