Eriksson Cannot Be Stopped

After a game where he showed his scoring touch on Saturday, Eriksson had a chance to show that he can be a playmaker on Tuesday. Similar to Saturday, his assists were the result of using his excellent offensive awareness, as he used a shot pass to feed his teammates on 2 of his assists. His first assist was a secondary assist that he smartly passed back to his teammate, who found their linemate Brian O’Neill to help Lulea HC go up 5-3. With those three assists, Eriksson now has 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points in only two games, which means that he has officially surpassed his SHL career-high in 35 fewer games than he did last season. He is also currently the sole leader of the SHL in points.

Eventually, Eriksson will play a game that will fail to wow fans, but for now, we can bask in the glory of his amazing performances that he is having every single game since joining Lulea. 

It’s hard to imagine what he would be doing with Vaxjo, but it also seems that he never got a true opportunity like he has had this year. Lulea clearly saw something that Vaxjo couldn’t see in the Habs’ 6th Round pick in 2023. Either way, the Canadiens prospect has been fun to watch as of late. 

Eriksson has even earned the “Baby Alfredsson” from a Swedish hockey fan online. His current style of play could resemble Alfredsson in that he is a dual threat offensively in the SHL. There are actually a lot of similarities between the players around the same age. Both were late bloomers who were drafted in the 6th Round of their NHL draft. 

Of course, Alfredsson was 21 years old at the time that he was drafted, which makes Eriksson’s season this year the equivalent of the year the legend was drafted. That year, Alfredsson put up 20 goals and 30 points in 39 games with Frolunda. If Eriksson keeps getting the minutes that he’s getting with Lulea, that could definitely be a possibility that he finishes the year with around the same amount of goals and points. Alfredsson was also only slightly bigger (6’0) than Eriksson (5’11) is today. Eriksson will need to add another 15 LBS to get close to Alfredsson’s NHL playing weight, but at just 20 years old, he certainly has the time to do that.

Eriksson’s skating at the same age looks better than Alfredsson’s did, but it’s a much faster game than it was 30 years ago, so it’s not very surprising. It will be interesting to see how Eriksson adapts to the North American game one day so that we can see if an NHL career is even possible.

The truth is Eriksson is currently on a hot streak, and even at his best, he’s still a long shot to make the NHL one day. However, at this point, he does show glimpses of what Alfredsson was as a player. 

Time will tell if he ever comes over to try the North American game, but he has definitely started to make waves as an intriguing prospect for the Habs over the last few weeks.

Do you believe that Filip Eriksson could play in the NHL someday?