Senators Draft LW Oliver Johansson with 74th Pick
The Swedish forward played just 15 games in his draft-eligible season
With the 74th overall pick of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, the Ottawa Senators once again went way off the board, selecting Swedish left winger (and sometimes centre?) Oliver Johansson.
Johansson played just 15 games in three different leagues in Sweden last year. He’s also only 17, and a bit on the small side relative to the other players the Sens have been drafting, at 6’0 and 183 pounds. It’s hard to know much about the kid with so little information to go off of, but hopefully Ottawa’s scouts know something that other teams don’t. They seem to be targeting players that may have been overlooked by other teams.
Indeed, like every other player the Sens have selected so far, Johansson was drafted much earlier than expected. Elite Prospects has him at #285 and #152 in different rankings. I certainly haven’t seen anyone rank him as high as #74. Still, I’m happy to see a young Swede on the team, and hope he pans out!
You can check out his stats at Elite Prospects, and watch this highlight video for an idea of the kind of game he plays: