Things I learned this week: Swedes love Edvinsson, the skating cameraman, and PWHL success
Happy Monday, here's what I've learned recently.
Greetings from Minnesota.
I’m writing this from the press box of 3M Arena at Mariucci, home to University of Minnesota, before a World Juniors Group B game between Finland and Czechia.
It’s been a bit a chaotic here since I last wrote at Shap Shots. I had an early Boxing Day flight from Detroit to Minnesota, have watched parts of 10 games already at World Juniors, and overly stressed about potentially winning a fantasy football championship — I need Kyren Williams to close it out for me tonight.
In a weird way, I thrive on chaos. Not sure why, but my brain tends to focus the most when I have hundreds of things going on. For example, I recently signed a book deal to write a Detroit Red Wings history book that will come out in spring of 2027 targeted Grade 3 through 7 reading level, and I spent much of Sunday morning woking on that outline.
Anywho… before I get into what I’ve learned this week, here are some written things from Ellie Prospects that I’d like to highlight.
Michigan State forward, and Nashville Predators prospect, Ryker Lee and his approach to the game — Lee makes hockey fun, I’ve really enjoyed watching his game in-person at Michigan State this season and I love the creativity he brings to the ice.
Alberts Šmits is a bona fide top prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft — Šmits is a monster on the ice, he is also a fascinating off-ice story. He’s lived by himself since he was 13 and takes a no-nonsense approach to hockey. He also looks, to me, like he could play in the NHL within the next 18 months and not have too many troubles.
Vojtěch Čihař getting much needed reset at the World Juniors — a Los Angeles Kings prospect, Čihař is making the move from Czechia to the WHL after this tournament and his development is an interesting case study in how sometimes rushing a player to professional competition might not be the best thing for their development.
OK, onto some other things I’ve learned this week, following up on the style of this piece I published last week.
On Simon Edvinsson and the excitement about him amongst Swedes
Kind of fitting timing on this, because Simon Edvinsson did this on Sunday to deliver the a 3-2 overtime victory for the Detroit Red Wings.
I’m a big fan of Edvinsson’s game and his development, in fact when it was reported the Red Wings didn’t make the move for Quinn Hughes because of Edvinsson’s potential inclusion, I felt heavily conflicted — which I wrote about here.
I also spend a good amount of time talking to Swedes, both in the media and scouting world, even more so during World Junior times.
So I’ve been curios to ask them about their view of Edvinsson, and one Swedish hockey executive told me that he believes, with how players are playing right now, he’d like to see Edvinsson playing in the Olympics.
Another pushed back on that, noting it’s something that will be a “fact of life in the next Olympics,” but not at this point.
Either way, Swedes are excited about the Edvinsson. It’s a similar feeling the Red Wings have, which is why he was reportedly a deal breaker for Steve Yzerman.
The NHL needs to steal this concept from World Junior broadcasts
I posted on Twitter/X about this the other day, about how I’d like to see the NHL adopt the concept of the skating cameraman for broadcasts.
My biggest mistake was posting on social media — it’s really become too much of a cesspool, hasn’t it? — and there are many people who told me how stupid I was and I must be an idiot to want a cameraman on the ice while the game is going on.
But here is the thing, that guy isn’t on the ice while the game is going. He’s on the ice during stoppages and sits in the penalty box while play is in action, during a stoppage he steps onto the ice to get close-up shots of players and officials.
It’s just like a cameraman running onto the field during an NFL game during a stoppage, it adds depth and perspective to the broadcast that’s better than just a wide shot of the ice all the time.
I’m not sure if he needs to be dressed fully in white, but my point remains — this would be a nice addition to NHL coverage.
The PWHL tour continues to be a success
I’m using this as an opportunity to tell you to read Robert Tiffin’s piece on the PWHL takeover game in Dallas.
Here read it:
OK, now that you’ve done that, I wanted to tell you how reading that, hearing how they had more fans than expected in Dallas, made me excited about going to the PWHL neutral site game on Saturday in Detroit between the Vancouver Goldeneyes and the Boston Fleet.
I’ve taken the family to the PWHL takeover games each of the past two seasons in Detroit and it’s been a blast each time, especially for me to be able to share this sport with my daughter in a way that she better connects with — representation matters, folks.
I’ll write a bit more about that later this week from my experience.
OK, that’s what I’ve learned this week. We’ll have more up later this week, as always, thanks for reading.