Victor Soderstrom is ranked 15th on McKeen's preliminary November draft rankings and the third defenseman off the board after fellow Swede Philip Broberg and Bowen Byram from the WHL. Jimmy Hamrin provides a full scouting report below.
A note on the 20-80 scale used below. We look at five attributes (skating, shooting, puck skills, hockey IQ and physicality) for skaters and six for goalies (athleticism/quickness, compete/temperament, vision/play reading, technique/style, rebound control and puck handling). Each individual attribute is graded along the 20-80 scales, which includes half-grades. The idea is that a projection of 50 in a given attribute meant that our observer believed that the player could get to roughly NHL average at that attribute at maturity
| Victor Söderström | 2019 NHL Draft Eligible |
|---|---|
| Position: D, Shoots R | H/W: 5-11", 176 lbs |
| Stats to date (GP-G-A-PTS-PIMS) | Brynäs, SHL (7-0-1-1-6) |
| Brynäs J20, SuperElit (14-1-7-8-2) |
Skating: A smooth skater. Soderstrom has an easy stride and doesn’t seem to need much power to get up to speed. His agility sideways is really good as well as his backwards skating. He always looks to be in control and he gets to the positions he thinks he needs to be in and almost never gets caught due to speed. His balance comes from his lower-body and he looks strong in in his legs. The top speed is not superfast, but fast enough. Grade: 60
Shot: Soderström is not a powerful shooter. He is more a smart-through-the-screen-shooter. In junior, he is a frequent shooter but not an effective one. In senior, he has not taken that many shots, not even on the power play. He has good shooting technique and he can shoot the puck with a quick release. With more accuracy and more of a shooting mentality he has the potential to become more of a weapon on the blueline. Grade: 50
Skills: Excellent puck control. Soderstrom is calm and skilled with the puck. He is a strong passer and a good puck-mover. He is skilled with the puck across the blueline as he can deke and move smoothly with his eyes up on the play. Grade: 60
Smarts: Soderstrom is an impressive decision-maker with the puck at such a young age. He almost always takes the right decision and sees the ice well. He can make hard, creative plays but can be effective with easy simple plays as well. He chooses his opportunities well. He reads the game really well, all-in-all. Without the puck, he positions himself smartly and is good in reading the game as well. He is rarely caught out of position. Grade: 65
Physicality: He is a bit undersized but with strong legs with good balance. He is also quite aggressive in his game and plays physical when needed and he can make a hit in open ice to shut down a play. Grade: 50
Summary: Smooth is the best word to describe Victor Soderstrom. A future top 4 defenseman in the NHL but maybe not the big producer on a power play. He should be a stable two-way player that performs every aspect of the game well. His puck control, passing of the puck and especially his smarts stand out. He seems to handle every stage that he is put on. He was sent up to the SHL recently and right away he impressed and now he is playing there full time, which is something that last year’s top end draft talent, Adam Boqvist, was not able to do on the same team with the same coach. For the draft, it is still early but I would be very surprised if he is not picked in the first round. His smarts stand out too much for all teams to pass on him.
Overall Future Projection (OFP): 58.5