Inside Wheeler’s Shocking Summer 2025 NHL Prospect Rankings: Who’s the True Future Star?
Photo:
Jason Kempin / Getty Images
UTA
2023
Tier 5
LW
Jason Kempin / Getty Images
2023
Tier 5
LW
He was off to a really positive start to his post-draft season in the SHL three seasons ago and was bound to make Team Sweden for the World Juniors before a late November ankle injury halted his year. It was particularly noteworthy after he was just OK in his draft year and didn’t take the steps many hoped he would, sliding out of first-round consideration and into the second round, where the Jets took him. You don’t often see teenage defensemen play 16-20 minutes per game in the SHL, but that’s how much Salomonsson was playing before he got hurt and how much he continued to play two seasons ago. He was just two weeks away from eligibility for the 2023 draft with his Aug. 31 birthday, too, so had his pre-injury play in the SHL been in his draft year, he would have been viewed differently. He then became an important defender for the 2024 SHL champs and the Swedish World Junior team. Despite missing time with an upper-body injury he suffered in mid-December last year, he had a really strong first season in the AHL as a 20-year-old, driving impacts at both ends on a bad Moose team.
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