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I realize this is anecdotal, but Bob Kaser (the Griffins play by play guy) said during tonight's broadcast that "everyone he talks to around the NHL thinks Edvinsson is going to be a perennial All-Star". Obviously take this with all the appropriate caveats but the last time I heard him say anything like that was in reference to Mo Seider.

At the risk of turning this into a Sprong thread I'll just say that he's much more physical than I anticipated. His defensive game is better too. He works hard on the boards and forechecks/backchecks well. I've followed his career for a while and could never figure out why he couldn't catch on somewhere. I'm still not sure why he didn't, he's a heck of a depth scorer and I wouldn't hesitate to play him higher in the lineup if injuries required it.

After seeing him dominate the SHL in his D+1 year my only real questions about Edvinsson were A) how will his game translate to North American physicality, and B) can his shot improve enough to be a threat. He already had everything else. Both questions have been answered at this point. In the pre-season Edvinsson admitted that last season he wasn't ready to compete physically in training camp and that he wasn't asserting himself. By the end of this season, during his call up, he was bodying guys like Tkachuk, Malkin, and MacKinnon and closing out plays. While I don't think he's done in this area, I think he's plenty physical enough for the NHL game. I also think he's come a long way toward answering questions about his shot. I don't know where he found time to do it but he's worked on this 1T and he's picking corners with his wrister. His passing was already exceptional. I'm not ready to say he'll never make a mistake again, we're seeing now that even for world class young defenders like Seider mistakes will still happen. The NHL is a really good league. But I think that all things considered he brings more to the team right now than Holl, Petry, Maata and that's he roughly even (and remarkably similar) with Chiarot in terms of his positives and negatives. The difference, of course, is that Edvinsson is 20 years old and this "Chiarot level of play" is his starting point. He's going to be really really good.