Introduction
Filip Nordberg is quickly becoming one of my favourite mid-rounders for the upcoming draft. At 6’4, Nordberg has a decent frame and offers a lot of raw potential. Currently, Nordberg sits between 80 and 100 in my rankings. Playing for Sodertalje in Sweden’s premier U20 league, Nordberg has racked up 6 goals and 23 points in 36 games. Nordberg is also the second top scoring defence on his team. He has also been called up for a total of 9 Allsvenskan games. This player profile will make the argument for Nordberg to be selected within the middle stages of the draft, covering his offensive skillset and his defensive skillset.
Offensive Ability
While I find that Nordberg is raw, and could use room for improvement in some areas, one thing that has caught my eye offensively is his ability to use space to his advantage, his heavy shot and his ability to make tape-to-tape passes in the slot to set up teammates. Nordberg can find difficulty sometimes while entering the offensive zone by trying to do too much, I believe he should push to the outside more than he does as it results in quite a few turnovers. However, when cycling in the offensive zone, or when on the power play, or just having possession on the blue line, Nordberg can create a lot of scoring chances.
There are a few things to discuss from this video. Nordberg could definitely have played the puck better with the first possession, but after re-grouping and pushing into the offensive zone, we see Nordberg’s ability to catch up to the play with his speed and providing a scoring chance for himself.
Another video showing how Nordberg uses space to his advantage. While he was not exceptionally quick in this video, he starts to push up closer offensively once the defender starts to skate backwards. Once Nordberg felt comfortable with the space he had, he let off a great shot to beat the goaltender.
I chose this clip for a specific reason. Nordberg entered the zone well, cut to one side and used his long reach to create a bit of room before letting a shot off. On the rebound, Nordberg showed quick thinking by sending the puck back to his teammate that could have resulted in another chance while also finding a soft spot on the ice for his own potential scoring chance. Nordberg moves around the offensive zone extremely well, and this is an example of that. Shortly after he receives a pass, he feeds the puck to the slot which results in a goal, something that Nordberg does extremely well. Nordberg is able to feed the puck through traffic at a good speed to give someone a high-danger area scoring chance.
This is another example of Nordberg moving well offensively on the power play and feeding the puck to the slot to create a scoring chance. He isn’t a flashy player by any means, but he will help create chances on the ice.
Nordberg does a good job at creating space once comfortable in the offensive end of the ice. This clip illustrates how he does that, by using his size to gain a little bit of space between the defenders and the puck, and then repositioning himself once that space is given.
Defensive Ability
While I will repeat, Nordberg still has some things to really work on. I like his physicality, I like his ability to stop a player from getting closer to the net, and his ability to cut off opponents and use his stick to reach for the puck. However, Nordberg can sometimes find himself flat-footed and put himself out of position to make a hit. These are things I think could be worked on, but there is potential there. He’s a big guy, hits pretty well and won’t ever shy way from a puck battle, where he wins a majority of the time.
This is a pretty good example of what I’ve seen from Nordberg battle-wise. Nordberg will apply as much physicality needed in order for the offender to lose the puck. Some of these battles in open ice have left Nordberg flat-footed, as I find he strives with plays against the boards or plays on the outside areas.
This clip is of a typical puck battle with Nordberg. As I mentioned earlier, he does win a majority of his puck battles, and I believe he does so by putting his body between the offender and the puck, while also using his frame to ‘hold off’ the offender, as he places his arms out to limit the amount of space the other player can move.
When Nordberg hits, he can really make an impact. Obviously at 6’4 and 205 lbs, he is fairly strong, and he uses his physicality to his advantage. Both offensive and defensively, if Nordberg is given the chance to lay a hit to gain possession, he will do it.
In the defensive zone, Nordberg does a good job of playing physically, pushing from the inside to the outside. When he lays the body on someone attempting to push towards the middle, he is trying to remove them from the play entirely.
Conclusion
Filip Nordberg still has some key areas of improvement I would like to see him do. While he does many things right, the effectiveness is sometimes lacking. When picking someone in the middle stages of the draft however, these are players that you would swing on and help with their development. If you can focus on increasing effectiveness in areas that he has also shown strength in, I believe you could turn him into an NHL player. He is a decent swing to take in the late 3rd round or 4th round of the draft, and I could see his NHL potential as a bottom 4 defence man with possibly some time on the power play unit.
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